BANCROFT 

LIBRARY 

■> 

THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 


V. 


^ 


2^i?^  7^^^/'2>VV^  ^r^  u  <.  tfAo^ 


FIFTY-THIHD    CONOitESSr" 


HEARINGS 


'  J^ 


BEFORE   THE 


COMMITTEE  ON  NAVAL  AFFAIRS, 

U.  S.  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 
May  1,  4,  8,  18,  22,  25,  29,  June  1,  5,  8,  12,  22,  1894, 

ON  THE 

BILL    H.   R.   6338, 

TO  ABOLISH  THK  BUREAU  IN  THE  TREASURY  DEPARTMENT  KNOWN  AS 

THE  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY,  AND  TRANSFER  THE  WORK 

OF  SAID  BUREAU  TO  THE  HYDROGRAPHIC  OFFICE  IN  THE 

NAVY  DEPARTMENT  AND  THE  GEOLOGICAL  SURVEY 

IN   THE   DEPARTMENT   OF   THE  INTERIOR. 


AMOS  J.  CUMMINGS,  Chairman,  of  ISTew  York. 
JACOB  A.  GEISSENHAINER,  of  New  Jersey. 
ADOLPH  MEYEK,  of  Lodisiana. 
WILLIAM  McALEER,  of  Pennsylvania. 
JOHN  M.  CLANCr,  of  New  York. 
HERNANDO  D.  MONEY,  of  Mississippi. 
J.  FREDERICK:  C.  TALBOTT,  of  Maryland. 
D.  GARDINER  TYLER,  of  Virginia. 
LEVI  T.  GRIFFIN,  of  Michigan. 
CHARLES  A.  BOUTELLE,  OF  Maine. 
JONATHAN  P.  DOLLIVER,  OF  Iowa. 
JAMES  W.  WADSWORTH,  OF  New  York. 
CHARLES  S.  RANDALL,  of  Massachusetts. 
JOHN  n.  ROBINSON,  OF  Pennsylvania. 
GEORGE  W.  HULICK,  of  Uhio. 

Joseph  Baumer,  Clerk. 


WASHnTGTOK: 

GOVERNMENT    PRINTING    OFFICE. 

1894. 


CONTENTS. 


Page. 
The  bill  H.  R.  6338  proposing  the  transfer  of  the  U.  S.  Coast  and  Geodetic 

Survey 5 

Statement  of  Prof.  R.  S.  Woodward,  of  Columbia  College,  New  York 5 

Statement  of  Prof.  George  H.  Williams,  of  Johns  Hopkins  University 30 

Statement  of  Mr.  R.  C.  Glasscock 31 

Statement  of  Prof.  T.  C.  Mendenhall,  Superintendent  of  the  U.  S.    Coast  and 

ui         Geodetic  Survey 51 

^     Statement  of  Hon.  B.  A.  Euloe,  M.  C 168 

5>     Letter  from  Plate  Printers'  Union  to  Hon.  B.  A.  Enloe 129 

^  ^Letters  from  Hon.  John  G.  Carlisle,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  to  Hon.  B.  A. 

O  J    Enloe,  M.  C :.       189 

^  ^Letter  from  Hon.  John  G.  Carlisle,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  to  the  Com- 

>  3:    mittee  on  Naval  Affairs,  recommending  the  transfer 189 

^  ^Letter  from  Hon.  H.  A.  Herbert,  Secretary  o'f  the  Navy,  to  Hon.  B.  A.  Enloe, 

jg    M.  C 189 

ft.  »^L.etter  from  Hon.  H.  A.  Herbert,  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  to  the  Secretary  of  the 

O'^  Treasury 193 

S    Letter  from  Hon.  Wm.  McAdoo,  Acting  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  to  Committee  on 

jj       Naval  Affairs,  recommending  the  transfer •. 190 

Report  of  Thorn  Commission  (1886)  to  investigate  the  U.  S.  Coast  and  Geo- 
detic Survey 195 

3 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 


Committee  on  Naval  Affairs, 

Tuesday^  May  1,  1894. 

The  Committee  on  Naval  Affairs  tliis  day  met,  Hon.  Amos  J.  Cum- 
mings  in  the  chair. 

The  Chairman.  We  will  give  Prof.  Woodward,  of  Columbia  College, 
New  York,  a  hearing  on  Mr.  Enloe's  bill  providing  for  the  transfer  of 
the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  to  the  Navy  Department,  and  the  bill 
is  as  follows : 

A  BILL  to  abolish  the  Bureau  in  the  Treasury  Department  known  as  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey, 
and  transfer  the  work  of  said  Bureau  to  the  Hydrographic  Office  in  the  Navy  Department  and  the 
Geological  Survey  in  the  Department  of  the  Interior. 

Beit  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  Rouse  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of  America  in 
Congress  assembled,  Thaton  and  after  the  first 'day  of  July,  eighteen  hundred  and  ninety- 
four,  the  Bureau  in  the  Treasury  Department  known  as  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Sur- 
vey be,  and  the  same  is  hereby,  abolished,  and  all  the  duties  now  performed  by  the 
Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey^  relating  to  the  survey  of  the  coasts  of  the  United  States 
and  adjacent  islands,  including  the  survey  of  rivers  to  the  head  of  tidewater  or  ship 
navigation  with  such  topography  as  may  be  necessary  thereto,  and  the  preparation 
of  charts  and  nautical  publications  therefrom,  and  all  soundings,  examinations  of 
temperature,  and  of  the  deep-sea  and  tidal-current  observations,  be,  and  the  same 
are  hereby,  transferred  to  the  Department  of  the  Navy,  and  the  Secretaries  of  the 
Treasury  and  of  the  Navy  shall  cause  to  be  transferred  to  the  Department  of  the 
Navy  all  the  vessels,  buildings  now  owned  or  controlled  by  the  United  States  and 
occupied  by  said  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  and  such  of  the  records,  materials,  and 
employees  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  as  may  be  necessary  in  order  to  carry 
out  the  purposes  of  this  Act. 

Sec.  2.  That  all  of  the  duties  now  performed  by  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey 
relating  to  the  geodetic  survey  are  hereby  transferred  to  the  Department  of  the 
Interior,  and  shall  be  performed  by  the  United  States  Geological  Survey  attached  to 
said  Department,  and  such  of  the  records  and  materials  as  belong  to,  or  are  used  in, 
said  work,  together  with  such  employees  as  may  be  necessary,  shall  be  transferred 
to  the  Department  of  the  Interior. 

Sec.  3.  That  the  chief  of  the  Hydrographic  Office  shall  be  an  officer  not  below  the 
grade  of  commander,  and  he  shall  be  entitled  to  the  highest  pay  of  his  grade. 

The  Chairman.  1  want  to  say  that  this  bill  is  recommended  by  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  Prof.  Wood- 
w  ard  desires  a  hearing,  and,  with  the  permission  of  the  gentlemen  of 
the  committee  present,  he  will  proceed. 


STATEMENT  OF  PROF.  R.  S.  WOODWARD,  OF  COLUMBIA  COLLEGE 

NEW  YORK. 

Prof.  Woodward  then  addressed  the  committee;  he  said: 
Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Committee :  My  colleagues  and 
I,  of  Columbia  College,  New  York,  have  drawn  up  a  protest  against 
this  bill  for  the  abolishment  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  and 
that  protest  has  been  submitted  to  the  chairman.  Your  chairman  has 
courteously  offered  to  hear  us  further  in  protest  with  regard  to  this 

5 


6         TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

proposed  transfer,  and  my  colleagues  Lave  asked  me  to  come  and  pre- 
sent tlie  case  for  tliem,  not  because  I.  am  especially  well  fitted  to  speak 
upon  a  question  of  this  kind  in  an  oratorical  sense,  but  for  quite  a  dif- 
ferent reason.  It  lias  been  my  fortune,  or  misfortune,  to  be  connected 
with  three  of  the  principal  scientific  services  of  this  country.  It  has 
been  my  fortune,  also,  to  have  been  connected  with  four  different  depart- 
ments of  the  Government;  first,  with  the  U.  S.  Lake  Survey  during 
the  last  eleven  years  of  its  existence,  a  survey  which  was  conducted 
for  forty  years,  namely,  from  1842  to  1882,  by  a  corps  of  engineers  of 
the  U.  S.  Army,  and  in  that  business  I,  of  course,  had  an  opportunity 
to  see  how  work  of  that  kind  is  carried  on  under  the  War  Department. 
Subsequent  to  that  time  I  was  connected  with  the  Commission  of  the 
United  States  to  observe  the  transit  of  Venus,  a  commission  organized 
in  1872  under  the  U.  S.  Navy,  and  its  duties  continued  until  1884.  My 
connection  with  it  lasted  during  the  years  1882  to  1881.  Immediately 
after  that  I  became  connected  with  the  U.  S.  Geological  Survey  and 
stayed  in  that  bureau  until  1890,  and  during  the  following  three  years 
ending  June  last  I  was  connected  with  the  bureau  in  question,  namely, 
the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey.  Now,  these  four  different  bureaus,  as 
I  have  said,  have  been  conducted  under  different  Departments,  namely, 
the  War  Department,  the  Navy  Dei)artment,  the  Interior  Department, 
and  the  Treasury  Department,  and  I  have  had  perhaps  exceptional 
opportunities  to  discover  the  modes  of  administration  of  business  and 
the  methods  of  conducting  surveys  or  the  scientific  works  of  the 
kind  carried  on  in  those  bureaus.  It  is  for  this  reason  rather  than  any 
other  that  I  have  been  asked  to  represent  my  colleagues  before  the 
committee  to-day. 

Now,  a  considerable  amount  of  correspondence  has  j)assed  between 
your  worthy  chairman  and  myself  concerning  this  business,  and  to  some 
of  that  I  wish  to  refer  subsequently.  But  to  begin  with,  it  seems  to 
me  we  should  look  very  briefly — for  I  know  your  time  is  valuable — very 
briefly  at  the  organization  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  and  the 
varying  fortunes  under  which  it  has  been  suffered  to  exist  since  its 
organization  in  1807.  That  organization,  I  may  say,  was  due  pri- 
marily to  Thomas  Jefferson.  Through  the  influence  of  Jefi'erson  and 
Gallatin  that  bureau  was  organized  in  1807.  It  was  assigned  at  that 
time  to  the  Treasury  Department;  but  owing  to  the  fact  that  it  was 
necessary  in  those  days  for  the  superintendent,  at  that  time  Mr.  Hass- 
ler,  to  go  to  Europe  to  collect  instruments  and  to  provide  equipment 
for  the  conduct  of  precise  surveys,  but  little  was  done  until  about  1815. 

You  will  recall  that  during  this  interval  the  war  of  1812  occurred, 
necessitating  attention  to  other  business  rather  than  the  prosecution 
of  such  surveys.  lu  1818  this  bureau  was  transferred  to  the  Navy 
Department,  and  I  wish  right  here  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  the 
discovery  which  has  been  made  during  the  past  few  months  that  it 
might  be  better  to  have  it  transferred  to  the  Navy  Department  is  no 
new  discovery.  It  continued  with  a  sort  of  fitful  existence  under  the 
Navy  Department  until  J832,  when  it  was  transferred  to  the  Treasury 
Department.  Then  in  1834,  it  was  transferred  back  again  to  the  Navy 
Department,  and  in  1830  it  went  again  to  the  Treasury  Department. 
One  might  think,  in  reading  this  history,  the  United  States  had  pursued 
a  rather  curious  and  vacillating  policy  in  regard  to  a  bureau  of  this 
kind.    It  has  remained  in  the  Treasury  Department  ever  since. 

In  1843  the  Bureau  underwent  something  like  a  reorganization  and  a 
definite  plan  was  determined  upon,  and  it  is  worth  while  to  state  in 
this  ^connection  that  that  plan  was  devised  by  a  board  consisting  of 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.         7 

3  civilians  and  6  Kavy  and  Army  officers  (4  topographic  engineers 
of  tlie  Army,  and  2  officers  of  the  Navy),  and  after  mature  deliber- 
ation they  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  proper  place  for  this  Bureau 
was  in  the  Treasury  Department  and  that  the  proper  conduct  of  it 
should  be  under  civilian  administration.  I  would  like  to  ask  you  to 
give  some  attention  to  that  history  and  read  for  yourselves  the  rea- 
sons urged  for  that  sort  of  administration,  as  I  have  not  time  to  go  into 
it  to-day. 

Now,  from  time  to  time  since  then,  most  prominently  in  1848  and 
1849,  attempts  have  been  made  to  get  this  Bureau,  or  some  portion  of 
it,  back  into  the  Navy,  and  although  the  subject  has  been  repeatedly 
discussed  in  the  halls  of  Congress  the  Bureau  has  been  retained  ever 
since  in  the  Treasury  Department.  In  1884  the  Government  sought 
to  examine  into  the  workings  of  the  various  scientific  bureaus  of  the 
Government,  and  amongst  those  that  came  under  the  consideration  of 
the  commission  appointed  from  both  Houses  of  Congress  were  the 
Weather  Bureau,  the  U.  IS.  Geological  Survey,  and  the  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey.  That  joint  commission  held  sessions  during  two 
years  and  they  took  a  vast  amount  of  testimony,  I  can  say,  because 
I  helped  to  prepare  a  portion  of  it.  I  was  in  the  U.  S.  Geological 
Survey  at  the  time.  They  collected  a  vast  amount  of  information  and 
heard  a  great  amount  of  testimony 

The  Chairman.  In  what  year? 

Prof.  Woodward.  During  the  years  1884  to  1886.  I  have  here  the 
report,  to  which  I  wish  to  refer  in  a  few  moments,  of  the  joint  commis- 
sion. As  I  say,  they  collected  a  vast  amount  of  testimony  on  this  matter, 
and  they  finally  made  a  report  in  the  latter  part  of  1886.  The  report 
was  not  unanimous.  There  were  6  members  of  the  commission  and 
they  stood  4  to  2  in  favor  of  leaving  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  as 
it  was  in  the  Treasury  Department  and  leaving  the  work  to  be  carried 
Oil  according  to  the  plan  adopted  in  1843. 

It  is  worth  while,  perhaps,  to  read  very  briefly,  the  conclusions 
of  that  committee,  especially  with  resi)ect  to  the  transfer  of  any  part  of 
the  work  of.  this  Bureau  to  the  Navy  liepartment.  I  see  I  have  some 
quotations  here  which  refer  especially  to  the  historical  matter,  bitt  I 
feel  obliged  to  i^ass  over  that  and  will  simply  refer  you  to  it.  There  is 
some  very  interesting  matter  in  this  report  of  the  committee.  They 
made  what  you  might  call  an  exhaustive  report  on  the  subject,  and  here 
is  the  conclusion  of  the  majority  of  the  committee  with  regard  to  the 
maintenance  of  this  work  in  the  Treasury  Department.     They  say : 

There  is  nothing  in  the  testimony  to  indicate  tliat  the  work  now  performed  by  the 
Survey  can  be  more  efficiently  performed  if  the  transfer  is  made,  nor  is  it  shown  that 
the  Navy  can  more  economically  execute  the  work ;  so  there  is  no  reason  either  on 
the  score  of  efficiency  or  economy  for  making  the  change. 

Tliat  is  the  net  result  of  their  conclusions.  Now,  as  I  said,  there  was 
a  minority  report.  That  report  was  written  by  the  present  honorable 
Secretary  of  the  Navy.  I  have  it  with  me  and  have  within  the  past 
three  or  four  days  taken  i:>ains  to  read  over  not  only  the  report  of  the 
majority  of  the  commission  but  taken  pains  also  to  read  very  carefully 
the  report  of  Mr.  Herbert.  This  report,  I  may  say,  has  interested  me 
very  mtich.  It  is  an  argument  for  which  I  have  great  respect.  It  is 
rich,  it  is  ornate,  and  it  is  the  work  of  a  classical  scholar.  He  has  pre- 
sented an  argument  in  favor  of  the  transfer  in  a  most  competent  man- 
ner, and  his  report  is  worthy  of  careful  attention. 

I  have  read  this  report  with  great  interest,  and  especially  with  refer- 
ence to  its  literary  merits,  but  let  me  say  to  you,  gentlemen,  that  not- 


8        TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

withstanding  he  has  marshaled  there  all  the  arguments  that  can  be 
marshaled,  I  think,  in  favor  of  this  proposed  transfer  to  the  ^avy,  it  is 
an  argument  rather  of  an  advocate  than  of  a  judge.  Singular  as  it  may 
seem  in  the  middle  of  this  half — or  rather  near  the  close  of  this 
half  century — the  honorable  Secretary  of  the  Kavy  seems  to  be  totally 
unaware  there  has  any  such  thing  as  what  we  call  modern  science  devel- 
oped during  the  past  two  hundred  years.  A  sort  of  strange  opacity 
seems  to  have  veiled  his  eyes  to  the  advances  of  modern  science,  which 
have  been  just  as  marked  along  scores  of  lines  as  the  progre-s  in  the 
direction  of  the  steam  engine  and  electricity.  I  need  hardly  tell  you 
this,  gentlemen,  you  are  able  to  see  for  yourselves;  but  if  the  position 
that  the  Secretary  of  the  Kavy  lakes  with  regard  to  a  question  of  this 
kind  is  proper,  we  would  expect  him  to  relegate  every  modern  battle- 
ship to  obscurity  and  go  back  to  the  dugout,  and  read  by  a  tallow  dij) 
instead  of  by  the  electric  light. 

Such,  then,  is  the  history  in  brief  of  this  Survey  up  to  the  present  time. 
Now  it  is  worth  while  to  go  into  some  few  details  with  regard  to  it,  and 
I  shall  begin  with  the  consideration  of  the  question  of  the  economy 
expected  to  be  secured  by  the  proposed  transfer.  I  will  say,  for  the 
benefit  of  the  members  of  the  committee  who  have  come  in  since  I  have 
began  speaking,  that  I  speak  from  experience  in  regard  to  this  matter, 
I  am  not  a  doctrinaire  who  has  been  locked  up  in  a  closet  in  some  col- 
lege and  has  never  seen  the  modes  of  administration  of  the  Army  or 
Navy,  but  I  have  been  with  the  Army  and  Navy  and  know  what  these 
modes  of  administration  are:  I  know  what  the  modes  of  conduct  are,  so 
these  things  I  am  about  to  mention  I  state  from  actual  experience,  and 
not  as  a  doctrinaire. 

Suppose  this  transfer  of  the  hydrographic  work  were  made  to  the 
Navy  Department;  what  would  be  the  result"?  It  is  necessary  in 
order  to  forecast  what  would  be  the  result  to  consider  what  hydro- 
graphic  work  is.  Most  of  you  gentlemen,  those  of  you  who  have 
not  had  time  to  look  into  the  details  of  this  work,  see  the  net  results  of 
the  hydrographic  surv^eys  embodied  in  the  charts.  That  is  the  last 
prqduct,  but  all  that  goes  before  that  fails  to  come  under  your  eye. 
It  is  a  technical  matter,  gentlemen,  and  I  can  well  understand  that 
you  may  not  have  had  time  to  look  into  it,  but  a  great  deal  has  to  be 
done  before  the  charts  can  be  produced.  There  must  be  surveys  made; 
we  must  know  the  latitudes  and  longitudes  of  points  in  that  survey. 
These  latitudes  and  longitudes  require  the  making  of  astronomical 
observations,  and  there  is  a  vast  array  of  elaborate  and  difficult 
computations  that  have  to  be  gone  through  in  order  to  i)roduce  the 
pro])er  results  which  are  embodied  on  the  sheet  of  paper  with, 
perhaps,  only  a  few  black  marks  on  it.  Now,  how  has  this  work  been 
done  in  the  past  history  of  geodesy  and  astronomy?  It  has  been  done 
by  geodesists  and  astronomers,  men  who  have  devoted  their  lives  to 
their  business  and  not  by  dilettante  officers,  or  ex  officio  scientific  men 
who  can  go  into  the  business  for  a  few  years  and  then  leave  it.  A 
man  to  be  proficient  in  that  sort  of  work  must  understand  it,  just  as  a 
man  to  be  proficient  as  a  lawyer  or  a  jurist  must  study  law  and 
jurisprudence. 

Let  us  suppose  this  transfer  was  made,  and  see  what  would  come  of 
it.  The  first  result  would  be  this :  Some  naval  officers  would  be  put 
in  charge  of  the  administration  of  the  work  and  then  they  Avould  pro- 
ceed to  hire  some  competent  scientific  men  to  furnish  brain  and  brawn 
to  carry  on  the  work.  The  result  would  not  be  economy.  You  would 
be  feeding  a  lot  of  naval  officers  here  and  the  real  work  would  be  done 


TRANSFER    OF    COAST    AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY.  y 

by  civilians.  Let  me  give  an  instance  of  conduct  of  that  sort  of  work 
on  the  U.  S.  Lake  Survey  daring  the  last  eleven  years  of  the  adminis- 
tration of  that  work  ^  and  it  is  proper  to  state  that  the  work  was  exceed- 
ingly well  done,  notwithstanding  it  was  under  the  administration  of  an 
Army  officer,  but  that  fact  serves  only  to  emphasize  the  case.  The 
exception  in  this  instance  i)roves  the  rule.  You  know  it  is  the  policy 
of  our  Army  and  Navy  to  set  different  officers  at  work  at  this  or  that 
piece  of  business  and  keep  them  only  for  a  few  years,  but  in  the  case  of 
this  efficient  officer  of  the  Corps  of  Engineers  he  was  allowed  to  remain 
at  that  business  during  the  whole  of  the  last  twelve  years  of  the 
existence  of  the  survey.  He  thus  had  time  to  develop  a  plan  and 
perfect  it. 

Now,  there  were  assigned  to  him  from  time  to  time  younger  officers 
of  the  Corps  of  Engineers.  They  were  men  mostly  just  from  West 
Point  and,  like  other  college  men  who  had  recently  come  from  college, 
they  were  inexperienced  and  had  to  gain  experience.  You  know  it  would 
not  do  to  put  such  men  under  the  charge  of  a  civilian  who  had  acquired 
his  knowledge;  that  would  not  do.  It  is  the  business  of  an  Army  or 
Navy  officer,  and  very  properly,  to  administer  affairs  and  command 
something  or  somebody.  Now,  then,  what  did  the  gentleman  who  had 
charge  of  this  survey  do?  He  put  these  Army  officers  in  charge  of 
the  steamers,  which  could  transport  parties  back  and  forth,  and  left  the 
more  important  work,  the  work  which  required  knowledge  and  perse- 
verance and  brawn,  to  civil  engineers  who  had  graduated  from  colleges 
of  the  country.  So  it  would  be  if  you  turn  this  work  over  to  the  Navy, 
They  would  hire  civilians  to  do  the  real  work,  to  furnish  the  brains 
and  industry  necessary  to  carry  it  on. 

The  Chairman.  One  word  right  there.  You  know  the  Navy  is  con- 
ducting coast  surveys  on  the  coast  of  Mexico? 

Prof.  Woodward.  I  shall  speak  about  that  later. 

The  Chairman.  Do  they  hire  civilians  there,  or  do  they  do  the  work 
themselves? 

Prof.  Woodward.  They  do  the  hydrographic  work — thej^  have  the 
Hydrographic  Office;  but  they  have  not  even  done  well  enough  to 
prevent  the  Kearsarge  from  running  on  Roncador  Reef;  I  under- 
stand they  sailed  hj  a  map  fifty-nine  years  old. 

The  Chairman.  If  they  are  capable  of  making  those  surveys  on  the 
coast  of  Mexico,  would  not  they  be  capable  of  making  surveys  on  the 
coast  elsewhere? 

Prof.  Woodward.  So  any  body  of  men  are  capable.  The  difficulty, 
however,  is  that  the  i3olicy  of  the  Army  and  Navy  is  inimical  to  that  sort 
of  work;  they  do  not  keep  the  men  long  enough  in  one  sort  of  work  to 
accomplish  anything.  Let  me  mention  another  case  in  the  conduct  of 
this  kind  of  work.  A  few  years  ago  one  of  my  colleagues  saw  a  base  line 
measured  by  the  geodetic  survey  of  France  working  under  the  com- 
mand of  army  officers.  These  army  officers  went  out  with  their  white 
gloves  and  set  up  umbrellas  and  they  had  some  scientific  experts  to  do 
the  work.  How  many  men  do  you  suppose  it  took  to  measure  that 
base?  There  were  57  men  employed.  Now,  a  year  or  two  later  the 
Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  measured  a  base  in  southern  Indiana.  How 
many  men  do  you  suppose  they  had?  They  had  8  men.  They  did  the 
work  about  twice  as  fast  as  the  Frenchmen  and  it  cost  very  much  less. 
That  is  the  way  that  sort  of  work  is  done. 

Mr.  Talbott.  Were  not  these  people  in  the  employment  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, enlisted  men? 


10       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

Prof.  Woodward.  Some  were  eini>loyed  as  enlisted  men,  but  experts 
were  also  emi)loyed;  men  who  furnislied  the  brains  and  everything  but 
mere  muscle,  and  in  Diany  instances  they  furnished  the  muscle  also,  as 
in  the  case  of  tlie  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey.  Those  men  are  civilians. 
They  are  men  who  are  trained  to  the  work,  men  wlio  make  a  i^rofession 
and  study  of  it  and  do  not  go  into  it  for  three  years  with  the  expectation 
that  they  are  to  be  transferred  to  some  other  point. 

Mr.  Talbott.  What  is  the  difference  in  the  education  of  a  man  who 
is  a  graduate  from  a  college  as  a  civil  engineer  and  one  who  graduates 
from  Annapolis  or  West  Point;  what  is  the  dift'ereiice  in  the  course  of 
study  which  makes  one  more  proficient  than  the  other? 

Prof.  Woodward.  There  is  nothing,  and  that  is  not  the  question; 
let  me  explain  to  you  what  is  the  point.  It  is  the  policy  of  the  U. 
S.  Navy  and  the  XJ.  S.  Army  to  sliift  men  about  from  j)lace  to  place. 
That  is  a  very  good  thing  and  that  is  a  very  proper  thing  in  the  Army 
and  ISTavy,  because  the  practical  business  of  an  army  and  navy  man  is 
to  fight.  That  is  their  business.  It  is  to  fight  and  command  men,  but 
when  you  go  into  the  administration  of  scientific  afiairs  it  is  not  fight- 
ing; that  is  not  it.  You  must  get  down  to  computation.  It  is  a  differ- 
ent sort  of  work,  and  it  is  for  that  reason  that  the  Army  and  Xavy  officer 
very  properly,  I  think,  is  not  willing  to  take  off  his  coat  and  go  into  the 
real  work.  He  will  hire  some  one  else  to  do  it.  Let  me  give  you  an 
instance.  While  I  was  in  the  IT.  S.  Lake  Survey  an  Army  ofticer 
was  sent  out  to  do  triangulation  work  along  with  civilians.  He  stayed 
three  days.  The  work  lay  in  a  sparsely  settled  part  of  the  country 
and  they  were  obliged  to  live  on  what  they  could  get  from  the  farmers, 
and  as  farmers  did  not  have  much  fresh  meat  they  had  to  eat  salt 
pork  and  meats  of  that  kind.  The  Army  officer  said  that  he  would  be 
damned  if  he  would  eat  salt  i^ork  and  climb  hills  for  the  United  States, 
and  be  did  not.  It  was  very  soon  found  that  he  could  be  transferred 
to  some  other  place,  and  I  do  not  blame  him,  because  that  was  not  his 
business;  his  profession  is  that  of  a  fighter. 

Mr.  Money.  But  it  is  his  business  to  do  whatever  he  is  ordered  to  do? 

Mr.  Woodward.  Yes,  it  is;  but  they  do  not  do  it. 

The  Chairman.  They  have  charge  of  improvements  of  rivers  and 
harbors  ? 

Prof.  Woodward.  Yes,  sir;  they  have;  and  there  are  500  or  000 
civilian  engineers  who  do  the  work.  Look  at  the  list  and  you  will  find 
that  a  great  bulk  of  that  work  is  done  by  civilian  engineers.  There  is 
no  doubt  about  it.  I  have  been  connected  with  the  various  workings 
of  these  bureaus,  and  I  know  exactly  how  they  go  on. 

The  Chairman.  Why  is  it  that  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey 
require  the  services  of  so  many  naval  officers'? 

Prof.  Woodward.  They  do  not.  They  require  specially-designed 
vessels  for  the  prosecution  of  their  work.  They  can  not  use  the  vessels 
of  the  Navy,  and  all  the  naval  officer  does  is  to  command  the  ship. 
The  men  are  enlisted  under  special  rules  and  regulations,  and  not  under 
the  naval  rules. 

So,  gentlemen,  if  you  transfer  this  Bureau  or  this  portion  of  the  work 
of  the  Bureau  to  the  Navy  you  will  find  in  the  end  it  Avill  be  bad  econ- 
omy for  the  United  States ;  you  will  simply  afford  places  for  officers 
during  these  piping  times  of  peace,  and  the  real  work  will  be  done  by 
civilians.  But  that  is  not  the  worst  of  it.  The  grade  of  work  will  be 
lowered.  A  man  whose  principal  business  is  fighting,  does  not,  as  a 
general  rule,  take  to  scientific  work  where  it  is  necessary  to  make  a  pro- 
longed study  of  mathematical  problems  and  astronomical  calculations. 


TRANSFER    OF    COAST    AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY.  11 

Look  over  tlie  history  of  geodesy  and  astronomy.  There  is  scarcely  a 
name  drawn  from  the  Army  or  Navy.  Everybody  has  heard  of  Sir  Isaac 
Newton  and  La  Place.  Can  you  nanie  anybody  from  the  Army  or  Navy 
who  is 

Mr.  Money.  I  can. 

Prof.  Woodward.  Who"? 

Mr.  Money.  Commodore  Maury. 

Prof.  Woodward.  In  the  history  of  geodesy  his  name  is  scarcely 
known.  Of  course  he  wrote  a  very  creditable  Ijook  concerning  winds, 
currents,  and  things  of  that  sort,  but  his  name  will  not  go  down  in  the 
annals  of  science  along  with  that  of  La  Place,  Newton,  La  Grange,  and 
men  of  that  type.  No,  gentlemen;  there  is  something  very  grotes([ue 
about  this  business,  and  I  shall  not  be  surprised  if,  in  the  course  of  a 
year  or  two,  a  bill  is  introduced  in  Congress  to  abolish  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  and  relegate  its  duties  to  the  advocate  judges 
of  the  Army  and  Navy.  It  is  not  a  bit  more  grotesque  than  the  conditions 
contemplated  in  this  bill.  It  is  surprising,  and  the  scientific  men  of 
this  country  are  alive  to  it.  They  are  in  earnest.  They  are  uot  mere 
dilettanti;  they  have  looked  into  it.  And  right  here  it  is  worth  while 
to  pause  and  say  a  word  about  the  ex-officio  dilettante  scientist.  You 
see  small  boys  astride  broomsticks,  imagining  that  they  are  riding  horses. 
Now,  a  naval  officer  or  an  army  officer  sometimes  gets  on  the  scientific 
broomstick  and  imagines  he  is  riding  a  scientific  horse,  but  that  is  not  so. 
A  man  to  be  a  successful  scientist,  and  to  be  worthy  of  mention  in  the 
annals  of  science,  must  do  just  as  a  lawyer  does — as  a  jurist  does;  he 
must  go  through  a  period  of  prolonged  study.  It  requires  work  to 
become  efficient  in  that  sort  of  business. 

I  want  to  say  that  I  do  not  protest  against  the  Navy.  I  am  saying 
nothing  against  the  Army  or  the  Navy  as  such.  I  believe,  from  a  large 
amount  of  observation,  we  have  men  in  our  Army  and  Navy  who  are 
just  as  capable,  just  as  brave,  and  just  as  patriotic  as  the  world  has  ever 
seen,  but  we  must  understand  that  when  we  come  to  scientific  work 
it  is  not  their  business;  their  business  is  fighting,  and  we  should  never 
forget  it.  Wlien  the  time  of  need  comes,  when  it  is  necessary  to  fight,  we 
shall  find  men  who  are  worthj^  of  their  race,  and  worthy  of  our  nation 
among  our  Army  and  Navy  officers.  I  have  sometimes  seen  strong  reasons 
for  protesting  against  the  niggardly  way  in  which  Congress  has  treated 
these  officers.  They  are  worthy  men  and  worthy  of  considerate  care, 
but  they  are  not  scientific  men.  Science  is  not  their  business,  and 
that  is  why  we  protest.  It  would  be  just  as  incongiuous  to  put  a  lot 
of  farmers  or  Coxey^s  army  in  charge  of  the  Army  of  the  United  States 
as  to  put  this  geodetic  work  in  the  hands  of  Army  and  Navy  officers  j 
not  that  they  could  not  do  it,  gentlemen,  but  the  modes  of  administra- 
tion of  the  Army  and  Navy  are  inimical  to  the  prosecution  of  that  kind 
of  work.  If  you  give  the  Army  and  Navy  officer  a  chance  to  stay  in 
his  position,  a  chance  to  devote  a  life  to  the  study  of  these  subjects,  he 
may  become  as  proficient  and  just  as  able  as  any  other  man. 

Mr.  Money.  Let  me  ask  you  a  question  there,  if  it  will  not  interrupt 
your  argument. 

Prof.  Woodward.  Certainly. 

Mr.  Money.  You  stated  at  the  beginning  of  your  remarks  that  this 
bureau  has  been  shifted  from  the  Navy  to  the  Treasury  and  back  again, 
etc. ;  what  was  the  result  of  the  work  when  it  was  under  the  care  of 
the  Navy  before  ? 

Prof.  W^ooDWARD.  That  is  a  very  good  point,  and  I  would  like  to 
read  the  history  of  it,  but  I  have  not  time  to  go  into  it;  but  it 


12       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

would  show  that  the  work  deteriorated  under  the  NaVy,  and  it  was  for 
this  reason  that  it  was  retransferred  and  put  in  charge  of  a  civilian 
bureau;  and,  as  I  stated,  the  plan  of  organization  was  drawn  up  by  4 
topographical  engineers  of  the  Army,  2  officers  of  the  Navy,  and  3 
civilians,  and  it  was  in  accordance  with  their  recommendation  that  the 
present  organization  was  perfected  and  has  been  maintained. 

Mr.  Money.  Another  question,  if  you  will  permit.  If  this  bill  should 
be  reported  and  acted  on  favorably,  would  these  scientists  who  are  now 
engaged  in  this  Bureau  be  dismissed? 

Prof.  Woodward.  Some  of  them;  undoubtedly  many  of  them  would 
resign,  because  you  know  just  as  well  as  I  do,  and  every  member  of  this 
committee  knows,  a  scientific  man  who  has  knowledge  does  not  like  to 
be  lorded  over  by  an  Army  or  Navy  officer. 

Mr.  Money.  That  is  assuming  an  offensive  sort  of  domineering  spirit 
on  the  part  of  an  Army  or  Navy  officer  which  I  do  not  suppose  would  be 
the  fact,  and  I  do  not  assume  or  admit  that. 

Prof.  Woodward.  You  have  never  been  under  tlieir  domination? 

Mr.  Money.  No;  in  regard  to  their  character  they  are  looked  upon 
as  gentlemen;  you  understand  that? 

Prof.  Woodward.  1  do,  but  I  have  been  under  their  dominion.  Of 
course,  they  are  considered  gentlemen,  but  it  is  naturally  the  result  of 
the  Army  and  Navy  discipline  for  them  to  be  domineering.  I  have 
been  under  them  and  I  know  what  it  is.    I  served  eleven  years. 

Mr.  Money.  Crede  experto  ? 

Prof.  Woodward.  Yes,  sir.  I  have  been  called  a  ^'damned  com- 
puter" and  various  other  names  of  that  sort.  Let  me  tell  you  a  little 
about  the  conduct  of  the  Naval  Observatory.  The  Observatory,  by  the 
way,  has  done  some  of  the  finest  astronomical  work  which  has  been 
done.  When  the  history  of  science  comes  to  be  written,  gentlemen,  if 
you  and  I  should  live  to  read  it,  we  shall  be  proud  of  the  work  that  has 
been  done  by  the  Naval  Observatory.  Who  did  it?  The  line  officers? 
No;  not  line  of  officers  of  the  Navy;  but  the  professors  of  mathematics 
who  have  been  i)ermitted  to  stay  there.  They  have  been  permitted  to 
devote  their  time  and  attention  and  lives  to  it.  There  are  some  grand 
men  who  have  gone  out  or  will  soon  go  out  from  that  institution,  men 
worthy  of  the  highest  standing  in  tliis  country  or  any  other  country. 

The  Chairman.  Then  why  is  it  that  the  college  professors  wanted 
this  taken  away  from  the  Navy  Dei^artment? 

Prof.  Woodward.  Not  all  of  them.  I  am  opposed  to  that  and  was 
opposed  to  it  when  that  measure  was  before  your  committee  a  year  or 
two  ago. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  It  seems  that  we  will  have  it  again  this  Con- 
gress, as  they  seem  very  persistent. 

Mr.  Meyer.  Let  me  in  terrui)t  your  train  of  argument  for  a  moment 

Prof.  Woodward.  Certainly,  providing  it  will  not  cut  me  short  of 
time. 

Mr.  Meyer.  You  remarked  that  the  business  of  a  naval  officer  as 
well  as  an  Army  officer  was  fighting  as  I  can  see,  but  the  mere  business 
of  fighting  in  the  career  of  an  Army  or  Navy  officer  occui^ies  but  very 
little  of  his  time.  Some  of  the  Army  and  Navy  officers  in  the  service 
now  who  have  been  in  that  service  for  twenty-five  years  never  have 
been  in  a  battle.  Do  you  mean  to  urge  as  an  argument  upon  this  com- 
mittee that  notwithstanding  that  fact  a  Navy  or  Army  officer  by  rea- 
son of  his  being  fitted  for  the  business  of  fighting  is  not  competent  to 
acquire  the  necessary  scientific  knowledge  refeired  to 

Mr.  Talbott.  No;  he  admits  that,  but  he  says  that  an  Army  or 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.        13 

naval  officer  is  not  permitted  to  remain  at  this  work  long  enough  to 
become  proficient  in  it. 

Prof.  Woodward.  That  is  the  way.  There  is  no  lack  of  ability  on 
the  part  of  these  officers. 

Mr.  Meyer.  You  say  they  can  not  do  scientific  study  with  advan- 
tage. Take  a  naval  officer  who  has  been  assigned  to  this  geodetic  sur- 
vey for  three  or  four  years.  Do  you  mean  to  say  after  he  leaves  that 
he  will  not  have  another  opportunity  and  facility  to  continue  that  line 
of  study  f 

Prof.  Woodward.  Yes,  sir;  he  will  be,  as  a  rule,  assigned  to  other 
duties  and  will  have  facility  to  acquire  some  other  kind  of  business. 

Mr.  Meyer.  Observe  here,  for  instance,  the  steamer  Blake.  It  does 
not  state  on  the  Naval  Register  what  naval  officers  are  on  that. 

Prof.  Woodward.  I  can  not  say  how  many  are  at  present. 

The  Chairman.  I  can  state  them  to  you  (reading  them  over  to  Mr. 
Meyer). 

Mr.  Meyer.  What  civilians  are  on  her? 

Prof.  Woodward.  That  steamer  simply  goes  about  from  place  to 
place  supplying  parties  who  do  the  work. 

Mr.  Meyer.  What  parties  do  the  work? 

Prof.  Woodward.  Shore-line  parties,  the  hydrographic  parties,  the 
men  who  have  to  live  in  small  boats  and  in  tents  on  the  shore  carry- 
ing on  the  work  of  the  Survey. 

Let  us  now^  look  at  the  other  phase  of  this  question,  namely,  that 
phase  which  proposes  to  transfer  the  geodetic  work,  the  tidal,  mag- 
netic, and  gravity  work  to  the  United  States  Geological  Survey;  that 
also  is  very  grotesque.  I  have  been  connected,  as  1  have  stated,  with 
the  United  States  Geological  Survey  and  I  know  its  methods  of  admin- 
istration very  well.  I  know  the  distinguished  director  of  the  Survey 
very  well.  I  have  made  a  special  study  of  him  as  well  as  some  other 
things.  He  is  a  very  distinguished  geologist  and  anthropologist,  but 
he  makes  no  pretension  to  geodesy,  magnetic,  or  gravity  work,  or  any 
of  the  scientific  work  which  is  carried  on  by  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Sur- 
vey, so  that  it  would  seem  just  as  grotesque  to  transfer  this  peculiar 
work  of  scientific  character  to  the  Geological  Survey  as  the  other  trans- 
fer I  have  mentioned.  A  man  to  carry  on  geodetic  work,  tidal  work, 
magnetic  work,  must  make  a  special  study  of  them.  Geology,  it 
must  be  said,  is  relatively  an  imperfect  science,  not  because  men  have 
not  tried  to  make  it  i)erfect,  but  because  from  the  very  nature  of  things, 
from  the  very  obscurity  of  the  data  available  it  has  not  yet  become 
a  reasonably  perfect  science.  Geodesy,  on  the  other  hand,  is  a  rea- 
sonably perfect  science,  and  it  seems  very  grotesque  and  very  incon- 
gruous to  transfer  this  work  to  the  Geological  Survey.  Doubtless,  it 
can  be  done  if  the  Geological  Survey  takes  hold  of  it  and  gets  good 
men;  in  the  course  of  ten  or  fifteen  years'  experience  they  will  learn 
to  do  the  work,  but  in  the  meantime  the  country  would  have  to  suffer 
the  expense. 

Mr.  Money.  That  is  if  these  gentlemen  choose  to  resign  who  are 
now  in,  or  if  they  are  forced  out  by  the  change? 

Prof.  Woodward.  Undoubtedly  many  of  them  would  be  forced  out. 
I  am  going  to  speak  shortly  of  what  the  results  are  when  you  shake  up, 
by  reorganization,  a  'bureau  every  few  years,  or  every  few  months. 
You  can  Avell  understand  what  would  happen  if  Congressmen  were 
elected  every  six  weeks.  If  you  shake  up  these  bureaus  every  year  or 
two  you  will  find  what  will  hax)pen.  ISot  only  would  the  grade  of 
work  deteriorate,  but  it  would  degenerate  to  mere  dilettante  science. 


14       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

wliich  would   be  very  expensive  to  the  Government.     I  sliall  have 
occasion  to  refer  to  that  by  and  by. 

Now,  there  is  a  very  important  omission  in  the  provisions  of  this 
bill.  It  may  not  be  known  to  you  gentlemen,  but  there  is  such  a  thing 
in  the  United  States  as  the  Bureau  of  Weights  and  Measures,  a  Bureau 
which  has  the  administration  of  measures  of  weight,  of  length,  of 
capacities,  and  things  of  that  sort,  and  it  is  coming  to  be  very 
important  that  that  Bureau  be  administered  with  proj)er  efficiency. 
That  Bureau  has  been  connected,  for  many  years — ever  since  it 
started,  I  believe — with  the  Coast  and  G-eodetic  Survey,  and  the  super- 
intendent of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  has  had  charge  of  the 
administration  of  it.  What  does  this  bill  contemplate  doing  with 
that?  Nothing;  there  is  no  mention  of  it.  It  is  a  very  important 
kind  of  work;  the  work  of  levying  duties,  etc.,  depends  upon  having 
proper  instruments  for  measuring  and  weighing,  and  for  the  testing  of 
sugars,  and  other  things.  What  are  you  going  to  do  with  it?  It  is 
proper  that  you  should  take  charge  of  that.  It  was  a  Bureau  which 
was  also  fostered  by  Thomas  Jefferson.  He  had  the  foresight  to  see 
what  was  necessary  with  respect  to  the  administration  of  that  sort  of 
work,  and  he  provided  for  it,  and  you  should  also  provide  for  it. 

The  Chairman.  Do  I  understand  you  to  say  it  is  a  bureau  of  the 
Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey? 

Prof.  Woodward.  It  is  a  bureau  by  itself;  it  is  appropriated  for 
through  the  legislative  bill. 

The  Chairman.  No;  through  the  sundry  civil  bill? 

Prof.  Woodward.  No;  it  is  not  appropriated  for  under  the  sundry 
civil  bill,  but  has  been  provided  for  in  the  legislative  bill  for  many 
years. 

Now,  let  me  come  to  consider  what  I  think  to  be  the  worst  feature  of 
this  bill,  and  that  is  that  it  unsettles  the  affairs  of  this  country.  It 
unsettles  scientific  work  and  degrades  it.  When  you  come  to  shake  up 
these  bureaus  you  have  to  get  a  new  set  of  men,  and  it  has  been  well 
said,  that  "•  wherever  workers  are  gathered  together  there  also  idlers 
abound,  seeking  to  feed  on  the  fruits  of  honest  toil.''  There  are  plenty 
of  them  in  Washington,  as  all  you  gentlemen  know,  and  you  know 
how  hard  the  fight  is  between  a  man  who  is  trying  to  attend  to  his 
business  and  the  man  who  is  seeking  to  get  a  place  where  he  can  simply 
be  kept. 

If  you  make  this  transfer,  in  all  probability  the  next  Congress  will 
transfer  it  back  again,  and  then  in  order  to  keep  the  bureau  active  as 
in  the  early  years  of  the  century,  it  will  go  back  and  forth.  It  will 
become  a  kind  of  political  football,  which  is  kicked  from  one  side  of  the 
ground  to  the  other.  Do  you  think  that  will  be  creditable  to  us  as  a 
nation  ?  That  will  inevitably  result,  gentlemen.  I  tell  you,  however,  the 
scientific  meu  of  this  country  will  never  be  satisfied  to  have  the  admin- 
istration of  this  work  in  the  incongruous  condition  that  you  propose  to 
put  it  by  this  bill.  To  go  back  to  my  simile  which  I  stated  before,  it 
would  be  no  more  incongruous  to  transfer  the  duties  of  the  Supreme 
Court  to  the  advocate-judges  of  the  Army  and  Navy;  not  a  bit  more 
incongruous.  On  the  other  hand,  if  we  are  to  go  down  in  history 
worthy  of  the  conduct  of  this  sort  of  work,  we  must  do  it  well. 

Now,  let  me  refer  to  the  line  of  argument  which  is  pursued  by  the 
honorable  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  I  admire  that  argument  very  much, 
and  it  is  worth  while  for  gentlemen  in  favor  of  the  bill  to  read  it  care- 
fully, as  it  will  furnish  a  far  better  argument  than  I  have  seen  advanced 
in  the  debate  on  this   question.     However,   he   seems  to  be  totally 


TRANSFER    OF    COAST   AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY.  15 

unaware  of  the  progress  of  modern  science  and  he  seems  to  have  a 
€urious  notion  that  these  bureaus,  like  the  Geological  Survey  and  the 
Ooast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  are  due  not  to  the  phenomena  of  nature, 
but  to  the  machinations  of  scientific  men.  Certainly  it  would  be  a 
curious  thing  if  they  should  be  due  to  the  machinations  of  scientific  men. 
Jefierson  never  tliought  of  that.  But  they  are  due  to  the  phenomena 
of  nature  and  they  will  last  as  long  as  we  have  commerce  and  naviga- 
tion; as  long  as  we  have  any  respect  for  the  phenomena  of  nature. 
So  long  as  the  tide  washes  the  beach  at  Sandy  Hook,  just  so  long  will 
you  need  carefully  prepared  tidal  tables,  and  just  so  long  will  you  need 
carefully  prepared  charts. 

Millions  of  dollars  sometimes  depend  upon  the  location  of  a  buoy;  5 
or  G  feet  may  swamp  a  vessel,  one  of  those  splendid  vessels  that  now 
cross  the  Atlantic.  Five  or  6  feet  only,  gentlemen.  I  am  not  a  mere  doc- 
trinaire from  the  closet  who  has  come  here  to  talk  to  you.  I  have 
seen  how  these  things  go.  I  recollect  being  out  on  Lake  Huron  when 
the  lake  was  very  smoky.  You  will  recall  the  forest  fires  in  Michi- 
gan in  1871,  and  it  was  frightfully  dangerous  to  be  out  on  the  lake 
at  a  time  when  the  fog  added  to  the  complication  of  smoke.  We  spent 
two  days  and  nights  there,  and  had  to  exercise  scrupulous  care.  Whj^? 
Because  there  was  a  great  danger  of  running  into  a  vessel  at  any  time. 
You  know  a  steamship  has  to  keep  out  of  the  way  of  sailing  craft. 
]!!^ow,  how  did  we  find  out  our  position.  There  had  been  a  careful 
hydrographic  survey  made  of  the  lake,  made  not  by  a  Xaval  oflQcer, 
but  by  civilians  trained  to  the  work,  men  who  had  made  a  study  of  it, 
men  whose  bread  and  butter  depended  on  their  competence  to  do  the 
work,  and  we  found  our  position  and  steered  for  a  safe  place  by  mak- 
ing soundings  in  the  lake.  It  was  x)ossible  from  the  carefully  i^repared 
chart  of  the  lake  to  find  out  where  we  were  in  the  .dark,  so  to  speak. 
]^ow,  to  attain  that  sort  of  perfection  requires  not  a  dilettante  or  an 
ex  officio  scientist,  but  it  requires  men  of  knowledge,  men  who  have 
made  a  study  of  these  subjects,  and  I  do  not  want  to  see,  and  my  col- 
leagues of  Columbia  College  and  the  scientific  men  of  this  country  do 
not  want  to  see,  our  science  degenerate  to  mere  dilettanteism,  but  they 
want  it  made  better.  They  will  meet  you  with  approval  in  every  case 
where  you  can  devise  reforms  for  its  perfection.  They  are  not  dis- 
posed to  defend  in  all  respects  the  past  history  of  this  or  any  other  gov- 
ernment bureau.  I,  at  any  rate,  am  not  pre^jared  to  do  so,  but  when 
we  judge  of  this  or  that  bureau  we  must  judge  of  it  as  we  do  of  every 
other  human  institution.  They  are  subject  to  human  frailties;  men 
may  commit  crimes  in  them  as  well  as  in  other  branches  of  Govern- 
ment service.  No  one,  I  will  say,  can  approve  every  act  of  Congress. 
You  will  admit  that  as  well  as  I. 

Now  then,  it  is  worth  while  to  consider  the  animus  of  the  author  ot 
this  bill.  I  hope  he  is  present.  Where  is  my  friend,  Mr.  Enloe!  I 
know  him  quite  well,  and  I  am  sorry  he  is  not  here,  as  I  wish  to  speak 
very  briefly  in  regard  to  his  animus.  Does  any  member  of  this  com- 
mittee believe  that  the  author  of  this  bill  is  animated  by  a  statesman- 
like desire  to  diminish  the  expenses  of  the  country  or  to  raise  the  type 
of  scientific  work  done  in  this  country? 

The  Chairman.  I  certainly  believe  that. 

Prof.  Woodward.  Well,  I  have  tried  to  believe  it.  I  have  taken 
that  as  my  working  hyi)othesis,  and  I  have  also  examined  into  the 
question  and  studied  the  evidence.  I  have  looked  into  his  speeches 
on  this  subject  before  the  House,  and  I  have  read  all  what  he  has  had 
to  say  about  it.    I  have  had  personal  interviews  with  him,  not  this 


16  TRANSFER    OF    COAST    AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY. 

year,  but  two  years  ago.  Let  me  give  you  a  bit  of  personal  experience. 
Two  years  ago  Mr.  Enloe  was  fighting  this  Survey,  and  it  seems  he  was 
specially  after  my  scalp.  I  was  employed  in  that  Survey  and  came 
here  to  it  during  the  time  of  the  Fifty-first  Congress.  I  came,  as  Mr. 
Enloe  says,  as  a  ^'donation."  Do  I  look  like  a  donation,  gentlemen;  a 
scientific  donation  to  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey?  Now,  Mr.  Enloe 
has  hved  here  or  been  here  in  Congress  for  several  years  within  a 
stone's  throw  of  that  Bureau.  Why  has  he  not  gone  down  to  that 
Bureau  and  found  some  trustworthy  information  concerning  it! 

The  Chairman.  He  tells  me  he  has  visited  the  Bureau  in  search  of 
information,  but  he  has  failed  to  find  it. 

Prof.  Woodward.  That  is  what  he  says,  but  I  am  credibly 
informed  he  has  never  taken  any  due  pains  to  find  out  the  workings  of 
that  Bureau,  and  I  want  to  read  a  little  extract  here  and  show  how 
much  information  he  had  on  this  subject.  In  the  course  of  the  debate 
on  this  matter  by  Mr.  Enloe  on  the  sundry  civil  bill  two  years  ago, 
he  offered  several  amendments  cutting  off  the  hydographic  appropria- 
tion of  the  Survey,  and  amongst  other  things  he  said  that  he  had  been 
infoimed  that  I  was  engaged  in  a  curious  kind  of  work  here;  that  I  was 
engaged  in  seeking  to  discover  a  new  method  for  the  formation  of 
"ice  bars.'^  Do  you  know  what  that  means!  Does  any  gentleman 
know  what  that  means?  If  any  man  here  does,  let  him  speak  up.  I 
do  not  know,  but  let  me  explain  that  to  you.  First  I  will  read  from 
the  Record  in  order  not  to  do  Mr.  Enloe  any  injustice.  He  says,  with 
respect  to  the  appropriation : 

As  it  stands  now  it  is  expended  under  the  direction  of  the  Superintendent  of  the 
Coast  Survey.  He  has  charge  of  the  entire  force  and  funds,  and  directs  where  the 
work  shall  be  done;  but  as  the  sum  is  apjiropriated  in  a  luuip,  and  no  particular 
direction  given  to  it,  he  can  take  it  and  apply  it  anywhere  in  the  country  to  any 
particular  work  he  desires.  He  could  spend  every  dollar  of  it  in  investigating  the 
formation  of  ice  bars. 

.'  Now,  that  is  not  so;  specific  appropriations  are  made  and  specific 
mention  is  made  of  localities  where  the  work  is  to  be  done.  But,  do 
you  know  what  that  means  in  regard  to  ice  bars?  I  was  engaged  at 
that  time  in  the  investigation  and  perfection  of  two  new  methods  of 
measuring  bases.  Since  that  time  the  scientific  world  has  had  occa- 
sion to  consider  my  work  and  has  approved  of  it.  I  am  willing  to 
risk  my  reputation  before  the  scientific  public  and  before  this  commit- 
tee, too,  if  they  will  make  a  competent  examination  of  it,  but  when  a 
man  shows  that  he  has  no  more  information  than  the  author  of  this  bill 
shows  in  this  debate,  I  am  not  willing  to  risk  my  reputation.  At  that 
time,  gentlemen,  I  was  trying  to  get  out  of  the  service  of  the  Govern- 
ment, because  I  found  it  afforded  no  adequate  opportunities  to  a  man 
who  had  any  ability  or  industry  in  him.  During  the  time  that  this 
question  was  up  for  debate  I  came  here  and  talked  Avith  Mr.  Enloe 
about  it,  and  sought  to  explain  to  him  that  I  was  neither  a  "donation" 
nor  a  loafer  and  desired  to  remahi  in  the  service  only  long  enough  to 
complete  the  investigation  then  nearly  done.  I  had  in  my  joocket  at 
the  time  an  ofi'er  of  a  professorship  in  a  college  to  which,  had  it  been 
necessary,  I  should  have  gone  and  furnished  the  money  to  complete 
that  investigation  in  a  creditable  fashion  to  the  Government  and  to 
myself. 

The  Chairman.  What  was  that  investigation? 

Prot.  Woodward.  It  was  the  perfection  of  two  new  methods  of 
measuring  bases  which  have  been  completed  and  tried,  and  have  met 
with  the  approval  of  the  scientific  world. 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.       17 

The  Chairman.  What  does  the  ''ice  bars"  have  to  do  with  that? 

Prof.  Woodward.  Let  me  explain.  One  of  these  kinds  of  apparatus 
is  known  as  the  "iced  bar,"  and  the  peculiar  feature  of  that  was,  as  Mr. 
Enloe  could  have  found  out,  that  we  packed  the  measuring  bar  iu 
melting  ice  to  control  the  temperature.  To  determine  or  control  the 
temperature  of  a  measuring  bar  has  been  a  great  subject  of  study  for 
two  hundred  years,  from  the  time  of  Sir  Isaac  Xewton.  We  have  an 
apparatus  wherein  we  i)ack  the  measuring  bar  in  melting  ice  and  keep 
it  at  a  fixed  temperature.  I  will  not  go  into  that,  because  if  any  of 
you  wish  to  examine  that  question  you  can  do  so.  I  am  willing  to  stand 
by  the  decision  of  the  scientific  world  but  not  by  the  decision  of  a  Con- 
gressman who  did  not  take  the  trouble  to  look  the  matter  uj). 

Now  I  would  like  to  refer  in  this  connection  to  an  argument  used  by 
the  honorable  Secretary  of  the  Navy. 

The  Chairman.  Before  you  read  that  let  me  ask  a  question.  Is 
it  your  opinion  Mr.  Enloe  has  a  personal  motive  in  introducing  this  bill? 

Prof.  Woodward.  Yes,  sir 5  that  is  my  private  opinion. 

The  Chairman.  Then  let  me  ask  you  what  motive  had  Senator 
Chandler  in  introducing  the  bill  in  the  Senate? 

Prof.  Woodward.  He  has  been  under  the  influence  of  naval  officers 
for  many  years.  I  have  had  a  chance  to  see  that,  and  I  could  relate  an 
anecdote  concerning  that  and  will  possibly  do  so,  but  that  is  going  back 
to  another  matter. 

The  Chairman.  How  about  the  approval  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury?  » 

Prof.  Woodward.  I  have  not  seen  the  argument  of  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  j  I  would  like  to  see  it.  I  have  not  seen  any  public  state- 
ment from  the  Secretary  in  regard  to  this  matter. 

The  Chairman.  I  think  you  will  find  in  Mr.  Enloe's  speech  on  the 
sundry  civil  bill  that  he  read  a  letter  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury. 

Prof.  Woodward.  That  is  something  I  had  not  seen.  Let  me  say 
that  on  an  occasion  two  years  ago  Mr.  Enloe  offered  several  amend- 
ments, all  of  which  were  defeated  I  may  say,  curtailing  the  work  of  this 
Bureau,  cutting  down  the  scientific  force,  cutting  down  the  salary  of 
the  Superintendent  in  particular,  and  Mr.  Herbert  could  not  stand  the 
assault,  and  here  are  the  words  he  used  on  that  occasion. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  desire  to  say  only  a  few  words.  Something  has  been  said  in  the 
course  of  this  debate  about  gentlemen  having  appointees  in  this  Bureau  whom  they 
desire  to  protect,  and  in  view  of  what  I  am  about  to  say  I  think  it  well  to  preface 
the  statement  by  the  assertion  that  I  have  never  had  an  appointee  there;  never  have 
applied  for  one;  and  I  have  made  a  good  many  harsh  criticisms  heretofore  on  the 
way  the  work  was  done,  and  that  I  am  not  disposed  to  retract  them.  I  think  much 
unnecessary  work  is  done  in  the  Bureau,  principally  in  geodesy,  magnetism,  and 
electricity 

I  will  say  there  is  scarcely  any  work  done  in  electricity  in  that 
Bureau 

and  those  connected  with  its  management  have  manifested  an  intention  to  pro- 
long the  existence  of  the  Bureau  and  its  work  indefinitely. 

The  Coast  Survey  will  be  a  perpetuity  if  its  officials  can  effect  it.  But  when  it 
comes  to  the  question  of  reducing  the  salary  of  the  chief  of  the  Bureau  or  any  other 
salaries  of  its  officers,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  work  they  do,  if  it  is  worth  doing  at 
all  it  is  worth  doing  well,  and  that  wheu  men  do  work  well  they  ought  to  be  paid 
for  it.  The  committee  on  appropriations  have  examined  the  matter  carefully  and  do 
not  recommend  a  reduction  of  the  salary,  in  that  they  indicate  their  opinion  that  the 
sum  of  $6,000  is  not  too  much  to  secure  the  services  of  a  man  of  the  attainments  of 
Prof.  Mendenhall. 

Kow,  gentlemen,  I  shall  take  but  a  little  more  of  your  time.    Let  me 
4561 2 


18        TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

say  to  you  that  Dr.Mendeuball  is  a  scientific  man,  a  scholar  and  a  gentle- 
man, and  a  man  who  is  known  and  respected  abroad  as  well  as  at  home; 
lie  is  a  man  who  is  a  credit  to  us,  and  scientific  men  look  with  fear 
upon  any  transfer  of  tliis  Bureau  which  would  contemplate  putting 
it  in  the  hands  of  men  in  whom  the  scientific  public  has  no  confidence. 

Lastly  let  me  refer  to  what  seems  to  be  the  spirit  of  this  bill.  It  is 
destructive  and  retrogressive  instead  of  being  constructive  and  pro- 
gressive. As  I  have  said  before,  the  scientific  public  is  not  prepared 
to  justify  the  past  history  in  all  respects  of  this  Bureau;  but  we 
think  it  proper  in  judging  to  judge  it  as  we  do  other  human  institutions, 
by  the  net  results,  and  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  it  must  be 
admitted,  has  in  many  ways  and  places  done  a  vast  amount  of  very 
creditable  work.  There  is  one  gentleman  attached  to  the  Survey  who 
lias  been  there  forty  years,  a  scholar  whose  industry  rivals  that  of 
President  Cleveland  himself. 

Mr.  Talbott.  What  is  his  name? 

Prof.  Woodward.  His  name  is  Schott.  He  is  a  man  of  marvelous 
industry  and  has  prepared  many  able  papers  and  investigations  and 
results  which  he  has  worked  out,  and  it  seems  to  be  a  pity  to  destroy 
that  Bureau,  and  cast  a  slur  upon  the  rej)utation  of  that  man  who  has 
been  an  honorable  servant  of  the  Government  for  forty  years. 

The  Chairman.  This  will  cast  no  slur  upon  his  reputation? 

Prof.  Woodward.  It  seems  to  me  it  would  cast  a  very  serious  slur 
upon  the  reputation  of  such  men,  because  the  proposed  destruction  of 
the  bureau  is  equivalent  to  charging  that  its  present  conduct  is  ineffi- 
cient or  corrupt.  Let  me  say  to  you,  gentlemen,  that  I  have  no  per- 
sonal affiliations  with  that  service,  and  no  interest  in  it  except  those 
proper  to  a  private  citizen ;  I  am  out  of  it.  I  am  glad  to  say  I  am  out 
of  the  government  service.  It  is  dog's  life  to  a  man  who  seeks  to  be 
industrious  and  to  attend  to  his  business.  In  many  respects  it  is  fine 
for  the  hangers-on,  as  the  work  is  largely  a  matter  of  administrative 
routine  which  runs  itself.  It  is  a  misfortune,  however,  that  our  scien- 
tific bureaus  are  not  under  a  single  scientific  head.  The  ideal  system, 
I  believe,  would  be  to  put  them  all  in  one  department  where  their  work 
could  be  correlated  under  and  represented  by  a  cabinet  officer.  With 
the  present  system,  you  can  see  that  a  corps  of  civilians,  like  those  of 
the  Geodetic  Survey,  are  placed  at  a  great  disadvantage  when  a  con- 
troversy of  this  kind  comes  up  and  when  naval  officers  who  would  like 
to  get  a  slice  of  the  scientific  work  are  able  to  enlist  the  aid  of  the 
honorable  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  Believing,  then,  that  the  spirit  of 
this  bill  is  destructive  and  retrogressive,  we  most  earnestly  protest 
against  it. 

I  thank  you,  gentlemen,  for  your  attention  on  behalf  of  myself  and 
my  colleagues,  and  I  shall  be  glad  now  to  answer  any  questions  with 
regard  to  matters  of  detail,  concerning  which  I  may  have  acquaintance. 

The  Chairman.  Before  you  sit  down  I  would  like  to  ask  a  few  ques- 
tions. Is  there  any  scientific  result  achieved  by  the  Coast  and  Geo- 
detic Survey  to-day  which  is  not  achieved  by  the  Navy  in  its  coast 
surveys  on  the  west  coast  of  Mexico  and  elsewhere  ? 

Prof.  Woodward.  Yes,  sir. 

The  Chairman.  What  are  they? 

Prof.  Woodward.  The  surveys,  if  they  were  properly  conducted  on 
the  west  coast  of  Mexico,  would  be  done  by  means  of  triangulation,  and 
done  with  accuracy.  I  had  occasion  this  morning  to  read  a  report  of 
the. work  they  have  carried  on  on  that  coast,  and  in  that  report  there 
was  a  note  saying  in  the  measurement  of  a  base  line  they  had  a  dis- 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.       19 

crepancy  of  3  yards.  That  is  what  we  would  call  a  gross  error,  and  is  a 
disgrace  to  any  sort  of  scientific  work. 

The  Chairman.  What  report  is  that? 

Prof.  Woodward.  I  can  not  give  you  the  report,  but  I  can  get  it  for 
you,  however.* 

The  Chairman.  I  will  be  much  obliged. 

Prof.  Woodward.  I  will  take  pains  this  afternoon  to  send  you  the 
quotation. 

The  Chairman.  Let  me  ask  you  another  question.  Is  not  it  true 
that  we  employ  Navy  officers  in  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Bureau? 

Prof.  Woodward.  Yes,  sir;  to  a  very  minor  extent.  They  are 
employed  almost  entirely 

The  Chairman.  I  am  speaking  of  the  Bureau;  they  are  employed? 

Prof.  Woodward.  A  few  such  officers  are  employed  for  short 
periods  of  two  or  three  years.  They  stay  there  two  or  three  years  as 
commanders  of  vessels  and  have  charge  of  this  or  that  sort  of  work, 
but  the  officer  is  never  permitted  to  enter  into  the  details  of  that  sort 
of  work  that  gives  character  to  it;  the  character  of  the  work  is 
derived 

Mr.  Money.  What  is  the  ofificer^s  special  duty? 

Prof.  Woodward.  To  command  the  steamer.  His  business  is  com- 
manding the  vessel. 

Mr.  Randall.  They  make  soundings? 

The  Chairman.  I  find  there  were  41  officers  employed  in  the  Coast 
and  Geodetic  Survey  last  year,  and  you  say  they  are  only  employed  in 
running  steamers  ? 

Prof.  Woodward.  That  is  substantially  the  only  work  they  do,  sir. 

The  Chairman.  Do  you  remember  the  Mosquito  Inlet,  Florida;  that 
was  under  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey? 

Prof.  Woodward.  Yes,  sir. 

The  Chairman.  I  certainly  saw  a  great  many  naval  officers  at  work 
there. 

Prof.  Woodward.  Undoubtedly;  but  did  they  have  their  coats  off? 

The  Chairman.  They  did,  and  they  waded  in  the  water. 

Prof.  Woodward.  I  never  saw  any  such  thing. 

Mr.  Randall.  In  my  district,  on  the  coast  of  Massachusetts,  that  is 
done.  When  a  coast  survey  steamer  comes  there  the  young  officers, 
cadets,  midshipmen,  etc.,  are  out  there  working  at  the  soundings,  etc. 

Prof.  Woodward.  Did  they  do  the  work  of  triangulation?  Let  me 
tell  you  the  work  of  triangulation  of  the  State  of  Massachusetts  has 
been  done  by  civilians,  and 

Mr.  Randall.  Attached  to  vessels? 

The  Chairman.  Who  appointed  you  to  the  Coast  Survey? 

Prof.  Woodward.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  in  1890,  at  the 
request  of  the  present  superintendent. 

The  Chairman.  Mr.  Mendenhall? 

Prof.  Woodward.  Yes,  sir. 

The  Chairman.  What  were  you  to  do? 

Prof.  Woodward.  He  assigned  me  to  geodetic  work  in  the  develop- 
ment of  those  forms  of  base  apparatus,  of  which  I  spoke  a  short  while 
ago,  and  subsequently  I  perfected  these  forms  of  apparatus  and  measured 
two  bases. 

The  Chairman.  That  was  the  special  work  to  which  you  were 
detailed? 

*  The  Methods  and  Results  of  the  Survey  of  the  West  Coast  of  Lower  California,  by 
the  officers  of  the  U.  S.  steamer  Banger,  during  the  season  ol  1889  and  1890,  p.  31 , 


20  TRANSFER    OF    COAST    AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY. 

Prof.  Woodward.  Hardly;  you  could  hardly  call  it  special  work, 
because  it  was  an  integral  part  of  the  work  of  that  survey. 

The  Chairman.  Do  you  know  by  what  authority  the  appointment 
was  made'? 

Prof.  Woodward.  Yes,  sir;  by  authority  of  Congress. 

The  Chairman.  What  was  the  salary  ? 

Prof.  Woodward.  Three  thousand  dollars  per  annum  is  carried  in 
the  appropriation  bill. 

The  Chairman.  Did  you  do  any  hydographic  work  before  you  went 
there? 

Prof.  Woodward.  Yes,  sir, 

The  Chairman.  Did  you  ever  do  any  geodetic  woik! 

Prof.  Woodward.  Yes,  sir;  I  was  employed  eleven  years  in  the 
U.  S.  Lake  Survey  doing  geodetic  work  the  most  of  the  time.  A  part 
of  the  time  1  did  hydrographic  work,  and  I  had  six  years  of  experience 
in  geodetic  work  lor  the  Geological  Survey. 

The  Chairman.  That  is  all  the  work  of  the  Coast  Survey,  either 
hydrographic  or  geodetic? 

Prof.  Woodward.  You  could  hardly  confine  it  to  that.  There  is  the 
tidal  work,  which  requires  a  collection  of  tidal  observations  and  a  dis- 
cussion of  them  by  elaborate  theories,  which  I  may  say  were  not  devised 
by  naval  officers,  but  by  La  Place. 

The  Chairman.  Are  naval  officers  competent  to  do  that  work? 

Prof.  Woodward.  There  is  not  known  in  history  a  naval  officer  who 
has  written  a  paper  on  tidal  theories.  Those  theories  are  due  to  La 
Place  and  Sir  William  Thomson.  There  was  a  man  who  is  now  dead, 
formerly  in  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  Mr.  William  Ferrell,  who 
also  i:>erfected  tidal  theories,  and  wrote  a  memoir  which  has  met  with 
commendation  throughout  the  scientific  world. 

The  Chairman.  Did  you  ever  do  field  work  for  the  Coast  Survey? 

Prof.  Woodward.  Yes,  sir;  I  measured  two  base  lines. 

The  Chairman.  What  has  been  the  result  of  the  work  you  have 
done  in  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey?    Give  us  an  idea  of  its  value. 

Prof.  Woodward.  I  suppose  I  can  give  a  fair  idea.  The  first 
practical  result  was  the  perfection  of  these  two  new  forms  of  base 
apparatus  that  served  not  only  to  expedite  but  to  cheapen  the  work. 
I  should  say  we  could  measure  a  base  line  now  with  sufficient  accuracy 
for  one-fourth  of  the  expense  it  cost  before  the  perfection  of  these 
methods. 

The  Chairman.  That  was  something  new? 

Prof.  Woodward.  Yes,  sir;  that  was  something  new.  These  two 
base  lines  I  measured  are  in  the  so-called  transcontinental  triangula- 
tion,  which  furnishes  a  large  number  of  latitude  and  longitude  points 
in  the  country.  The  Geological  Survey  has  already  used  much  of  this 
information  in  their  map  work. 

The  Chairman.  Now,  can  you  give  us  any  idea  of  the  time  it  would 
take  for  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  to  complete  its  work  ? 

Prof.  Woodward.  Yes,  sir;  I  can  give  you  a  definite  statement 
about  that  if  you  will  let  me  rise  from  my  seat.  I  would  like  to  elabo- 
rate a  little  upon  that.  I  Mill  say  that  so  long  as  the  earth  turns,  so 
long  as  you  can  see  stars,  so  long  as  we  have  navigation  and  tides  and 
phenomena  of  nature,  such  work  will  continue.  It  arises,  not  from  the 
machinations  of  scientific  men,  but  out  of  the  phenomena  of  nature, 
and  as  long  as  we  have  these  phenomena  of  nature  scientific  men  will 
be  found  and  governments  will  be  found  to  prosecute  that  work  so 
long  as  man  is  a  civihzed  being. 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.        21 

The  Chairman.  That  is,  it  will  stand  as  long  as  the  Republic  stands? 

Prof.  Woodward.  Yes,  sir.  It  will  stand  as  long  as  the  Republic 
stands.  Whatever  you  may  do  you  can  not  stop  this  work  any  more  than 
you  can  dam  the  Mississippi  River.  It  is  a  part  of  civilization.  Look 
at  the  geodetic  maps  of  Europe  and  you  will  find  the  whole  country  is 
covered  with  triangulations.  Go  to  India,  or  look  at  the  map  of  India, 
and  see  what  the  British  Government  has  done  there.  That  is  practi- 
cally an  unknown  country,  a  vast  area  of  unknown  lands  that  has  been 
covered  with  triangulations.  They  have  done  ten  times  as  much  geodetic 
work  in  India  as  this  country.  Look  at  the  continent  of  Europe. 
It  is  the  same  way.  A  part  of  Asia  is  already  covered  with  such  geo- 
detic work  which  determines  accurately  the  latitudes  and  longitudes 
of  points,  differences  of  heights,  the  forces  of  gravity,  magnetic  forces, 
and  all  of  those  things  interesting  and  useful  in  a  country's  civiliza- 
tion. I  would  like  to  make  that  very  emphatic,  because  the  Secretary 
of  the  Navy,  in  his  learned  argument,  seems  to  have  entiiely  left  out 
of  sight  the  fact  that  these  bureaus  arose  out  of  the  phenomena  of 
nature.  He  seems  to  think  they  might  just  as  well  be  dispensed  with  as 
not.  You  might,  gentlemen,  just  as  well  talk  about  dispensing  with, 
railroads  and  electric  lights.  You  might  just  as  well  talk  about 
abolishing  gravitation  as  to  talk  about  abolishing  these  bureaus. 

Of  course  you  can  cut  down  and  limit  the  expenditures  and  lop  off 
here  and  there,  and  stop  them  for  a  few  years,  but  scientific  men  will 
never  be  content. — never,  sir,  as  long  as  there  is  any  such  thing  as  civ- 
ilization— scientific  men  will  never  be  content  with  that  sort  of  retro- 
gression. Look  at  the  maps  of  the  French  and  German  governments, 
and  look  at  the  millions  of  money  they  are  spending  in  educational 
and  scientific  institutions.  Look  at  the  great  institution  at  Berlin, 
established  a  few  years  ago,  the  FhysiJcaUscJies  Beichs-Austalt,  which 
is  administered  under  the  direction  of  Prof,  von  Helmholtz.  Why, 
gentlemen,  it  is  astonishing  in  this  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  we 
should  have  a  bill  looking  toward  the  destruction  of  such  an  insti- 
tution as  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey.  The  German  Parliament  and 
German  Government  did  not  look  amongst  their  naval  and  army  offi- 
cers to  find  a  man  to  administer  this  function  of  scientific  work.  They 
looked  to  the  leading  scientific  men  of  their  country.  A  few  years  ago, 
also,  there  was  a  change  made  in  the  administration  of  what  is  known 
as  the  Geodetic  Institute  of  Prussia.  Did  they  look  about  in  their  army 
or  navy  for  a  man  who  might  be  furnished  with  an  ex  officio  scientific 
reputation?  No.  What  did  they  do!  They  looked  about  in  the 
scientific  profession  and  secured  Dr.  Helmert,  a  man  who  had  written 
an  elaborate  treatise — a  learned  and  scholarly  treatise — on  the  subject  of 
geodesy,  the  greatest  treatise  on  that  subject,  and  he  was  put  at  the 
head  of  that  work. 

There  seems  to  be  an  opinion  current  in  Washington  that  one  only 
requires  to  invest  a  man  with  authority  to  make  him  a  scientific  man.  It 
is  preposterous.  A  scientific  man  must  go  through  a  period  of  remorse- 
less drudgery  and  work  beiore  he  can  become  recognized  as  such. 
I  tell  you  the  competition  among  scientific  men  is  something  fright- 
ful, especially  in  Germany  and  France.  I  read  only  yesterday  an  arti- 
cle in  the  Forum,  written  by  Prof.  Stanley  Hall,  president  of  Clark 
University,  in  which  he  details  the  amount  of  money  spent  by  the 
French  Government  since  the  Franco-Prussian  war  and  the  amount  of 
money  spent  by  the  Prussian  Government  since  the  Franco-Prussian 
war  in  founding  institutions  for  scientific  researches.  It  is  enormous; 
it  goes  up  to  $30,000,000  or  $40,000,000  since  the  time  of  the  Franco- 


22       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

Prussian  war,  and  yet  we  find  men  in  Congress  who  seem  to  be  utterly- 
ignorant  of  the  state  of  modern  science.  No,  gentlemen,  do  not  destroy 
these  bureaus,  perfect  them;  take  what  is  good  of  them  and  make  it 
better;  that  is  the  true  line  of  statesmanship. 

The  Chairman.  Then  I  understand  that  the  work  of  the  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey  will  never  be  completed ! 

Prof.  Woodward.  No,  sir;  that  sort  of  work  will  never  be  com- 
pleted so  long  as  the  tide  ebbs  and  flows  and  there  is  rotation  of  the 
earth. 

The  Chairman.  I  want  to  ask  this  question ;  you  have  been  in  the 
Geological  Survey,  does  that  apply  to  the  Geological  Survey  as  well '? 

Prof.  Woodward.  Yes,  sir. 

The  Chairman.  One  more  question  and  then  I  am  through.  You 
tell  me  you  were  opposed  to  turning  the  Naval  Observatory  over  to  the 
scientific  men,  to  outside  professors? 

Prof  Woodward.  No;  you  misunderstood  me.  1  say  I  was  opposed 
to  turning  the  Naval  Observatory  over  to  that  particular  body  of  men 
who  came  before  you  a  year  or  so  ago. 

The  Chairman.  Were  they  not  scientific  men  in  their  way,  the  same 
as  Prof.  Mendenhall  is  in  his? 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  You  mean  Prof.  Boss,  for  instance  I 

Prof.  Woodward.   Yes,  sir.    If  you  will  permit,  1  will  go  into  that. 

The  Chairman.  No;  what  I  wanted  to  inquire  was  this:  If  you  hold 
that  the  Navy  was  perfectly  competent  to  handle  the  Naval  Observatory, 
why  would  not  the  same  line  of  argument  apply  to  the  Navy  in  regard 
to  hydrographic  work  and  geodetic  work  ? 

Prof.  Woodward.  I  do  not  think  the  Navy  is  perfectly  competent 
to  handle  the  Naval  Observatory,  and  the  history  of  the  administration 
shows  it;  but  fortunately  they  have  permitted  a  line  of  staff  ofiicers  or 
professors  of  mathematics  to  retain  their  positions  long  enough  to 
enable  them  to  do  a  large  amount  of  creditable  work,  but  at  present 
they  are  degenerating  in  that  work,  and  it  will  not  be  long  before  the 
scientific  public  will  say  to  Congress,  you  must  have  a  different  form  of 
administration  for  the  Naval  Observatory.  The  trouble  at  i^resent  is 
that  there  are  no  successors  to  the  learned  professors  who  have  distin- 
guished themselves  in  astronomical  science  during  the  last  thirty  years. 
They  are  now  passing  away.  Only  a  few  years  ago  one  Avas  retired, 
and  in  a  few  years  two  or  three  more  will  go  out;  where  are  their 
successors?  1  can  tell  you,  sirs;  some  are  clergymen  appointed  as  pro- 
fessor of  mathematics  in  the  United  States  Navy.  Do  you  know  that? 
Some  few  years  ago  there  were  two  clergymen  appointed. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  Do  not  clergymen  make  very  creditable  scien- 
tific men  ? 

Prof.  Woodward.  They  might,  but  the  point  is  that  they  were  not 
in  this  case. 

The  Chairman.  Is  it  not  a  fact  that  line  officers  of  the  Navy  fre- 
quently resign  for  the  purpose  of  being  appointed  i>rofessors? 

Prof.  W^OODWARD.  I  have  heard  of  only  one  case.  In  line  with  this, 
Mr.  Chairman,  if  you  will  permit  me  to  call  your  attention  to  another 
point  which  I  omitted.  I  would  like  to  call  attention  to  another  fact. 
In  a  rather  considerable  correspondence  I  have  had  with  you,  Mr. 
Chairman,  you  seemed  to  have  labored  under  a  misapprehension 

The  Chairman.  No  ;  I  answered  you  on  the  spur  of  the  moment  with- 
out looking  at  the  bill,  that  is  all,  in  regard  to  transferring  the  work 
belonging  to  the  Geodetic  Survey  and  the  Hydrographic  Survey  to  the 
Navy  Department  and  the  geological  part  to  the  Geological  Survey. 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.       23 

Now,  let  me  ask  you  one  question  before  you  leave  that.  I  should 
judge  from  what  you  have  said  here,  professor,  that  you  hold  that  the 
scientific  education  given  to  the  naval  cadets  at  the  Kaval  Academy 
at  Annapolis  is  entirely  useless  as  far  as  the  Navy  is  concerned? 

Prof.  Woodward.  No,  sir;  I  have  made  no  such  proposition  as  that. 

The  Chairman.  You  seem  to  think  they  should  confine  themselves 
to  fighting  and  to  nothing  else? 

Prof.  Woodward.  That  is  their  principal  business  and  that  is  what 
they  are  educated  for;  but  if  you  will  allow  me,  let  me  say,  if  you  per- 
mit them  to  stay  long  enough  in  the  business,  stay  undisturbed  and 
devote  their  time  and  attention  and  lives,  they  may  become  competent 
scientific  men  as  well  as  anybody  else.  The  sine  qua  non  of  scientific 
work  is  the  same  as  the  sine  qua  non  of  any  other  work ;  a  man  must 
devote  his  interest  to  it;  but  it  is  the  policy  of  the  administration  of  the 
Army  and  Navy  to  shift  the  men  about  from  place  to  place. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  That  being  conceded  and  time  being  given, do 
you  claim  they  would  be  just  as  efficient? 

Prof.  Woodward.  I  could  hardly  say  they  would  be  just  as  efficient, 
because  they  would  be  liable  at  any  time  to  be  called  out  from  this  work 
and  put  in  the  Army,  just  as  during  the  recent  civil  war. 

Mr.  Meyer.  Before  you  proceed  Avith  that,  admitting  the  force  of 
your  eloquent  and  forceful  remarks  as  to  the  value  of  scientific  progress^ 
etc.,  what  reason  is  there  that  the  work  of  this  Bureau  could  not  be  as  well 
done  under  the  Navy  Department  as  it  is  now  done  under  the  Treasury 
Department?  On  board  of  the  Coast  Survey  vessels  there  is  no  civil- 
ians at  all.  You  stated  awhile  ago  they  are  on  shore  and  in  tents;  are 
they  not  under  the  direction  of  the  ofiicer  on  board  the  ship? 

Prof.  Woodward.  No,  sir;  they  are  under  the  direction  of  the  Super- 
intendent of  the  Survey. 

Mr.  Meyer.  They  receive  orders  from  the  officers  of  the  ship? 

The  Chairman.  The  officers  themselves  are  under  the  orders  of  the 
Superintendent. 

Mr.  Meyer.  Why  could  not  the  scientific  work  be  better  advanced 
under  the  existing  administration  of  the  Navy  Department  as  under 
the  Treasury  Department? 

Prof  Woodward.  There  is  no  particular  reason  why  the  Bureau 
should  be  under  one  Department  rather  than  another  so  far  as  the  main- 
tenance of  the  Bureau  is  concerned.  It  might  be  under  the  Interior 
Department  or  any  other  as  far  as  the  real  work  is  concerned,  but 

Mr.  Meyer.  According  to  that,  you  admit  that  it  is  rather  material^ 
as  far  as  scientific  results  are  concerned,  whether  it  is  control  of  one 
Executive  Department,  the  Navy  Department,  or  another? 

Prof.  Woodward.  Exactly. 

Mr.  Meyer,  On  that  point  of  view,  as  far  as  scientific  results  could 
be  obtained,  as  far  as  scientific  results  go,  it  is  the  same,  whether,  it  is 
under  one  Dei)artment  or  another? 

Mr.  Talbott.  If  men  were  assigned  to  this  special  work  and  should  be 
permitted  to  remain  there  ten  or  fifteen  years  without  being  interfered 
with,  you  say  it  would  be  remedied? 

Prof.  Woodward.  In  the  course  of  ten  or  fifteen  years,  perhaps;  but 
in  the  meantime  it  would  be  very  expensive  to  the  Government,  and 
science  would  suffer. 

Mr.  Meyer.  What  is  the  position  of  the  scientific  men,  whom  I  pre- 
sume you  represent,  in  regaiiPto  the  transfer  to  the  Navy  Department; 
do  they  think  it  will  have  a  deleterious  effect? 

Prof.  Woodward.  It  would  have  an  immediate  deleterious  effect.    It 


24       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

would  take  ten  or  fifteen  years  to  get  a  proper  corps  of  men.  As  I 
explained  before,  the  result  of  the  action  contemplated  in  this  bill  would 
be  that  the  Navy  woukl  simply  do  the  work  of  administration  and  hire 
civilians  to  do  the  real  work.  Now,  they  will  necessarily  have  a  low 
grade  of  civilian  service,  because  no  man  who  feels  his  liberty,  as  you 
and  I  do,  will  be  content  to  work  under  an  Army  or  Navy  officer  and  be 
called  *'a  damned  computer,"  as  I  have  been  called. 

Mr.  Money.  Let  me  call  your  attention  to  one  of  the  provisions  of 
the  bill.  ''  And  such  of  the  records,  materials,  and  employes  of  the 
Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  as  may  be  necessary  in  order  to  carry  out 
the  purposes  of  this  act,"  etc.    It  says  that  they  shall  be  retained. 

Prof.  Woodward.  Yes,  sir;  but  you  do  not  mean  to  infer  that  this 
bill  will  carry  all  of  these  men  over  bodily? 

Mr.  Money.  Oh,  no,  sir. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Do  you  think  they  will  resign  if  they  are  transferred"? 

Prof.  Woodward.  Many  will. 

Mr.  Enloe.  And  could  their  places  be  filled? 

Prof.  Woodward.  They  could  be  filled  by  an  inferior  grade  of  men, 
because  it  is  only  a  low  grade  of  men,  devitalized  men,  who  will  subject 
themselves  to  the  scorn  and  contempt  of  a  naval  officer. 

Mr.  Money.  You  are  assuming  what  I  think  is  a  very  violent 
assumption,  that  this  competent  corps  of  men  who  are  to-day  employed 
with  such  fine  results  as  has  been  shown  will  resign  if  they  are  trans- 
ferred to  the  Navy  Department  on  account  of  some  supposed  assump- 
tion of  their  inferior  i^osition. 

Prof.  Woodward.  I  should  assume  they  would  -,  I  should  resign  at 
once. 

The  Chairman.  Why  did  you  resign  ? 

Prof.  Woodward.  I  should  be  quite  pleased  to  tell  you  why.  I 
resigned  because  I  could  do  far  better  outside  of  the  Government  serv- 
ice than  I  could  in  it.     My  services  were  worth  more  to  me. 

The  Chairman.  You  say  they  would  resign  because  they  could  do 
better  outside? 

Prof.  Woodward.  Quite  possibly,  but  that  does  not  end  the  matter 
at  all.  You  recollect  I  called  your  attention  to  what  would  be  the  prac- 
tical result.  I  say  we  could  ])redict  with  practically  absolute  certainty. 
You  are  not  going  to  remain  in  Congress  continually 

Mr.  Money.  Yes,  sir;  we  proi)ose  to  stay  here  a  good  while. 

Prof.  Woodward.  I  suppose  you  do,  but  the  people  would  say  no 

Mr.  Money.  They  will  not  let  us  off'. 

Prof.  Woodward.  At  any  rate  the  people  will  have  something  to  say 
about  this.  Just  as  soon  as  you  degrade  our  scientific  work  the  scien- 
tific public  of  this  country  will  become  strong  enough  to  change  all  that 
back  again. 

Mr.  Money.  But  we  do  not  propose  to  do  that;  we  propose  to  con- 
tinue the  same  work  with  identically  the  same  men  by  the  same  methods. 

Prof.  Woodward.  Nq,  sir. 

Mr.  Money.  Yes,  sir;  see  the  language  of  the  bill.  That  is  what 
we  are  going  to  do. 

Mr.  Talbott.  And  if  we  find  some  idlers  we  will  get  rid  of  them. 

Prof.  Woodward.  I  hope  you  might;  I  would  be  glad  to  see  any 
idlers  gotten  rid  of. 

Mr.  Money.  And  we  propose  to  retain  the  satisfactory  men. 

Prof.  Woodward.  You  propose  to  pIPfe  the  superintendent  of  this 
work  where?    Are  you  going  to  have  the  same  superintendent?    It 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  A^^D  GEODTEIC  SURVEY.       25 

seems  to  me  that  one  of  the  prime  objects  of  this  bill  is  to  remove  him, 

Mr.  Talbott.  But  suppose  he  was  to  die? 

Prof.  Woodward.  Then  the  scientific  men  of  this  country  would  see 
to  it  that  no  man  but  a  scientific  man  would  be  placed  in  charge  of  it. 

Mr.  Talbott.  So  does  the  Government. 

Prof.  Woodward.  I  want  to  say  to  you  in  confidence  and  in  all 
honesty,  gentlemen,  that  the  scientific  public  would  not  commend  you 
for  putting  tbis  sort  of  work  under  the  charge  of  the  Kavy  Depart- 
ment. 

Mr.  Money.  That  might  be. 

Prof.  Woodward.  And  I  will  say  that  you  can  not  find  5  scientific 
men  out  of  1,000  in  this  country  who  would  vote  in  favor  of  this  bill. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  They  would  condemn  it  without  a  trial? 

Prof.  Woodward.  Yes,  sir;  they  would. 

Mr.  Talbott.  What  is  the  standing  among  the  scientific  public  as 
to  the  professors  who  teach  the  young  men  of  West  Point  and  the  Naval 
Academy;  do  not  they  rank  well? 

Prof.  Woodward.  Certainly;  as  a  rule  they  rank  well. 

Mr.  Money.  I  ask  you,  as  a  good,  fair  specimen  of  a  scientific  man 
in  every  way,  do  you  mean  to  say  there  is  such  an  esprit  de  corps  in 
your  body  that  these  men  will  not  continue  in  this  service,  to  which 
they  have  devoted  practically  the  best  years  of  their  lives  and  the  best 
energies  of  their  minds  and  bodies,  and  to  which  they  must  be,  to  some 
degree,  devoted;  do  you  mean  to  say  there  is  such  an  esprit  de  corps  as 
they  would  resign  their  life-work  because  the  mere  head  of  the  admin- 
istration has  been  changed! 

Prof.  Woodward.  Yes,  sir. 

Mr.  Money.  With  no  disturbance  of  their  work  or  their  methods  of 
work,  but  simply  because  the  scientific  head  has  been  changed;  do  you 
mean  to  say  that  those  gentlemen  would  resign,  that  the  country  would 
lose  their  valuable  services? 

Prof.  Woodward.  That  is  precisely  what  I  mean  to  say. 

Mr.  Money.  Was  that  the  fact  before  when  it  was  transferred  from 
the  Treasury  Department  to  the  Navy  Department;  did  they  resign 
in  a  body,  or  any  considerable  number,  or  any  of  them? 

Prof.  Woodward.  You  could  hardly  say  any  considerable  number, 
because  there  were  only  a  few  of  them. 

Mr.  Money.  Did  any  man  resign  before  when  this  Bureau  was  trans- 
ferred from  the  Treasury  to  the  Navy  Department? 

Prof.  Woodward.  I  think  a  considerable  number  did. 

Mr.  M  one  Y.  1  ask  your  opinion  because  I  am  unprejudiced  in  regard  to 
this  matter.  The  bill  is  new  to  me,  and  I  am  simi)ly  inquiring  for  infor- 
mation, because  you  are  here  to  give  us  the  information,  and  so  you 
will  please  excuse  the  questions  1  am  asking  you. 

Prof.  Woodward.  Perhaps  you  will  excuse  me  for  being  somewhat 
earnest  in  this  matter,  for  I  have  been  so. 

Mr.  Money.  I  am  very  glad  to  see  it. 

Prof.  Woodward.  I  have  been  under  Army  and  Navy  domination, 
and  had  them,  as  I  said,  call  me  ''  a  damned  computer." 

Mr.  Money.  You  seem  to  be  somewhat  aggrieved 

Prof.  Woodward.  I  am,  and  every  man  would.  No  man  who  is  not 
undervitalized  could  feel  otherwise,  and  I  say  these  men  who  have  been 
trained  for  this  service  do  not  like  the  prospect  of  being  placed  under 
the  charge  of  a  naval  officer,  or  under  the  charge  of  an  ex  officio  scientist. 

The  Chairman.  Have  you  read  the  report  of  the  testimony  taken 


26       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

before  First  Auditor  Cheiioweth  in  1885  in  an  investigation  of  the  Coast 
and  Geodetic  Survey^ 

Prof.  Woodward.  No,  sirj  I  liave  not,  and  probably  for  very  good 
reasons.    Would  you  like  me  to  tell  you  the  reasons? 

The  Chairman.  Yes,  sir. 

Prof.  Woodward.  That  report,  I  believe,  was  never  made  public, 
and  let  me  tell  you,  the  First  Auditor  made  a  report  concerning  the  sur- 
vey, and  Mr.  Thorn,  who  was  then  in  charge  of  the  survey,  reviewed 
the  testimony  and  examined  the  facts  and  found  that  the  charges  in 
most  instances  were  wrong.  He  exonerated  the  men,  many  of  them 
very  industrious  and  efficient  men. 

The  Chairman.  That  would  be  decided  by  the  testimony  taken? 

Prof.  Woodward.  Certainly,  it  was  decided  by  the  testimony  taken, 
and  that  was  the  decision  arrived  at  by  Mr.  Thorn,  the  man  put  in 
charge  of  that  Bureau  by  President  Cleveland,  and  he  exonerated  those 
men.  Let  me  say  to  you,  gentlemen,  that  I  think  it  is  a  great  wrong 
that  this  great  nation  has  never  publicly  exonerated  those  eminent  and 
industrious  servants  of  the  Government  from  the  charges  brought 
against  them.    It  is  a  great  w^rong. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Why  did  not  they  make  public  that  report? 

The  Chairman.  I  will  say  I  have  not  had  time  to  examine  this  report, 
as  1  have  been  two  weeks  getting  it. 

Prof.  Woodward.  I  would  like  to  have  that  made  public  and  look 
over  it  myself. 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  have  been  trying  for  three  or  four  years  to  get  a  copy. 

Prof.  Woodward.  Why  did  not  you  appeal  to  Mr.  Cleveland  and 
Mr.  Thorn? 

Mr  Enloe.  Mr.  Thorn  I  had  no  right  to  appeal  to,  and  Mr.  Cleve- 
land has  no  jurisdiction  of  the  report.  They  were  not  in  office.  I  sup- 
pose if  I  had  made  my  appeal  properly  to  the  Superintendent  of  the 
Coast  Survey  I  might  have  gotten  it  as  a  matter  of  grace  and  not  as  a 
matter  of  right. 

Prof.  Woodward.  Do  you  suppose  he  has  authority  to  give  out  that 
report? 

Mr.  Enloe.  It  seems  that  he  thinks  not,  as  he  refused  to  give  it  to 
me  or  allow  me  to  examine  it. 

Prof.  Woodward.  I  think  you  will  find  the  case  as  I  have  stated. 
It  was  a  disgrace  to  the  administration  that  made  that  investigation, 
and  that  is  why  that  report  has  not  been  made  public. 

The  Chairman.  Is  there  a  copy  of  that  report  in  the  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey  Office? 

Prof.  Woodward.  I  understand  there  is,  but  I  can  not  speak  from 
personal  information. 

The  Chairman.  I  asked  Mr.  Enloe's  information. 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  was  advised  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  under 
the  former  administration  that  the  testimony  and  report  was  in  the 
possession  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  Office,  and  I  went  there 
and  asked  for  it  and  was  refused  access  to  it  and  that  is  all  I  know 
about  it. 

The  Chairman.  On  what  ground? 

Mr.  Enloe.  On  the  ground  that  Mr.  Thorn  left  it  there  in  a  desk  and 
that  it  was  not  a  public  report,  that  it  was  his  private  i^roperty. 

The  Chairman.  I  want  to  say  I  found  a  copy  of  the  report  and  testi- 
mony in  the  Treasury  Department,  so  that  there  must  have  been  two 
copies.  It  was  just  handed  to  me  this  morning  and  I  have  not  had 
time  to  look  over  it. 


TRANSFER    OF    COAST    AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY.  27 

Prof.  VS^OGDWARD.  My  opinion  is  the  reason  that  report  was  not 
made  public  is  this:  Simply  the  examiners  found  the  charges  which 
were  brought  were  not  sustained  and  they  did  not  feel  like  saying  so. 
I  hope  sometime  this  country  or  our  governors  will  be  honest  enough  to 
saj^  so  and  bring  out  the  facts  and  exonerate  the  men  of  these  charges 
that  were  brought  against  them  unjustly. 

The  Chairman.  Mr.  Enloe  was  absent  when  Prof.  Woodward  made 
his  statement  in  regard  to  what  he  considered  the  animus  of  the  pres- 
ent bill. 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  was  before  another  committee,  and  1  would  have 
been  very  glad  to  have  heard  his  statement. 

The  Chairman.  The  professor  thinks  you  were  animated  somewhat 
from  personal  motives. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Then  the  professor  makes  that  statement  without  any 
facts  whatever  to  justify  it. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  The  professor  did  not  elaborate  upon  that  point. 

Mr.  Enloe.  My  motive  in  introducing  the  bill  was  to  try,  if  possible, 
to  prevent  employing  two  sets  of  men  to  do  the  same  kind  of  work.  I 
do  not  know  what  the  professor  thinks  about  it  or  what  he  has  said 
about  it.  An  investigation  of  the  work  done  by  this  Bureau  and  an 
investigation  of  the  work  done  by  the  Geological  Survey  will  show,  as 
far  as  work  on  shore  is  concerned,  that  there  is  duplication  to  a  very 
large  extent,  and  that  for  all  practical  purposes  they  are  going  over  the 
same  ground,  and  that  there  is  no  justification  for  it.  I  introduced  this 
bill  for  the  purpose  of  avoiding  the  unnecessary  expense  of  employing 
two  sets  of  men  virtually  to  do  the  same  work.  I  believe  it  will  be  a 
better  system,  and  I  believe  the  hydrographic  work  will  be  more  respon- 
sive to  the  demands  of  the  Government  if  put  under  the  control  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy  than  it  is  at  present.  I  can  see  no  necessity  for 
having  a  superintendent  here  to  superintend  the  work  of  a  few  men  on 
the  shore,  practically  doing  the  same  work  on  the  shore  that  is  done  by 
the  Geological  Survey.  The  work  that  is  done  on  the  water  is  done  by 
naval  officers,  and  the  supervision  is  exercised  by  the  Superintendent 
of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey. 

Prof.  Woodward.  Will  you  allow  me  for  a  moment,  Mr.  Chairman, 
to  refer  to  the  question  of  the  duplication  of  the  work.  I  have  been 
employed  in  the  two  bureaus  and  I  have  seen  how  this  work  goes  on, 
and  I  think  I  know  all  about  this  question  of  duplication,  and  I  would 
be  willing  to  assert,  if  you  can  figure  up  the  cost  of  the  work  done,  that 
you  would  find  that  the  amount  of  duplication  that  has  been  done  in 
the  United  States  would  not  amount  in  value  to  $2,000.  It  has  been 
merely  accidental.  The  Geological  Survey  is  not  doing  geodetic  work 
of  refinement.  They  are  doing  geodetic  work  which  is  sufficient  for 
their  map  purposes,  and  that  leads  me  to  the  question  concerning  which 
your  chairman  seems  to  have  labored  under  some  misconception. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Before  going  on  that,  allow  me  to  ask  you  a  question. 

Prof.  Woodward.  1  want  to  keep  on  this  subject  for  a  moment. 
Your  chairman  seems  to  have  labored  under  a  misconception  that  the 
Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  is  doing  geological  work,  and  he  says  they 
have  been  doing  geological  work  for  years.  Not  to  make  a  false  quota- 
tion, I  will  read  from  his  letter 

The  Chairman.  Is  it  not  a  fact  that  their  work  in  some  cases  extend 
several  miles  back  in  the  country? 

Prof.  Woodward.  Certainly,  in  geodetic  work. 

The  Chairman.  Do  they  not  use  men  from  the  Geological  Survey  to 
do  that  work  ? 


28       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

Prof.  Woodward.  Yes,  to  do  geological  work,  certainly.  First,  let 
me  quote  from  your  letter,  because  it  would  seem  there  was  a  rather 
serious  miscouceptiou 

The  Chairman.  I  told  you  I  wrote  the  letter  before  the  bill  was 
before  the  committee,  that  first  letter. 

Prof.  Woodward.  Here  is  a  letter  dated  April  18. 

The  Chairman.  What  I  wanted  to  convey  to  your  mind  w^as  this 
fact,  that  the  proposition  was  to  transfer  the  hydrographic  part  to  the 
hydrographic  part  of  the  Navy  Department  and  the  geological  part  of 
the  Survey  to  the  Geological  Bureau  of  the  Interior  Department. 

Prof.  Woodward,  The  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  is  not  doing 
geological  work,  and  it  has  never  done  geological  work. 

The  Chairman.  Then,  why  do  you  employ  men  of  the  Geological 
Survey  to  do  the  work  ? 

Prof.  Woodward.  The  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  does  not  employ 
men  from  the  Geological  Bureau. 

The  Chairman.  You  said  they  did. 

Prof.  Woodward.  No;  1  say  they  do  not.  I  say  the  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey  has  never  done  any  geological  work,  but  it  does  geo- 
detic work. 

Mr.  Enloe.  What  is  the  difference  between  geological  and  geodetic 
work?    Define  it  for  the  committee. 

Prof.  Woodward.  Geodetic  work  comprises  the  work  of  triangula- 
tion  from  precise  bases,  audit  comprises  the  determination  of  longitude 
and  latitude  by  astronomy.  It  comprises  the  measurement  of  the 
forces  of  gravitation  and  terrestrial  magnetism.  You  know  it  is  very 
essential  in  many  surveys  to  know  what  the  variation  of  the  magnetic 
needle  is,  and  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  has  carried  on  that  sort 
of  work.  Another  important  and  difficult  branch  of  the  work  is  that 
of  the  tides,  especially  the  elaboration  of  the  tidal  tables  which  furnish 
the  state  of  the  tide,  say  at  New  York  City. 

The  Chairman.  Let  us  get  down  closer;  we  have  heard  all  of  that 
before.  What  I  want  to  know  is  this,  if  the  map  that  Mr.  Enloe  exhib- 
ited in  the  House  during  the  discussion  of  the  sundry  civil  bill — a  map 
on  which  work  was  done  10  miles  from  the  shore  in  one  case 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  do  not  know  the  exact  distance  from  the  shore,  but  I 
exhibited  maps  there,  and  amongst  them  a  map  of  the  Chesapeake  Bay 
and  going  east  all  along  the  Atlantic  coast,  and  the  survey  extended 
back  into  the  country,  and  it  is  the  most  absolutely  detailed  map  I  have 
ever  seen  of  the  city  of  New  York,  Staten  Island,  Boston,  and  other 
cities  and  towns  and  various  watering  places  along  the  Atlantic  coast, 
giving  the  streets,  street  car  lines,  roads,  railroads,  trees,  and  houses, 
and  everything  in  detail  for  a  distance  back  in  the  country  which  can 
not  serve  any  purpose  that  T  can  see. 

Prof.  Woodward.  Let  me  answer  that  question,  the  Coast  and  Geo- 
detic Survey  is  authorized  by  law  to  do  that  sort  of  work. 

Mr.  Enloe.  But  what  is  the  practical  purpose  of  that? 

Prof.  Woodward.  The  practical  purpose  for  these  maps,  according 
to  the  original  plans,  was  for  offensive  and  defensive  purposes  as  well 
as  for  the  purposes  of  navigation. 

Mr.  Enloe.  That  is  called  cadastral  work? 

Prof.  Woodward.  Let  me  read  you  the  opinion  of  Gens.  Wright 
and  Smith. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer,  Will  you  please  confine  yourself  to  the  defini- 
tion of  the  distinction  between  a  geological  and  a  geodetic  survey? 

Prof.  Woodward.  That  i6  what  I  sought  to  do. 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.       29 

Mr.  Meyer.  Does  tlie  geological  force  of  the  Geological  Survey  do 
geodetic  work. 

Prof.  Woodward.  They  do  geodetic  work  of  an  inferior  order,  only 
just  sufficient  to  afford  a  basis  for  their  maps.  The  more  refined  geo- 
detic work,  the  determination  of  latitudes  and  longitudes  and  the  pre- 
cise determination  of  bases  and  triangulation,  are  relegated  to  the  Coast 
and  Geodetic  Survey. 

Mr.  Enloe.  They  do  not  do  work  of  triangulation,  then? 

Prof.  Woodward.  They  do  what  is  called  secondary  and  tertiary 
work  of  triangulation. 

Mr.  Meyer.  Why  is  it  that  they  are  confined  only  to  the  secondary 
and  tertiary  work,  to  inferior  work  ?  Are  not  they  competent  to  do  first- 
class  work  ? 

Prof.  Woodward.  They  are  confined  to  that  because  they  do  not 
wish  to  tresi^ass  upon  the  province  of  the  Coast  and  Geodeticj  Survey. 
It  is  authorized  by  law  to  do  that  work,  whereas  the  Geohjgical  Survey 
is  not  authorized  by  law  to  do  that  sort  of  work. 

Mr.  Enloe.  But  you  admit  they  are  capable? 

Prof.  Woodward.  Certainly;  you  can  build  up  a  corps  that  will  do 
it,  but,  as  I-  said  to  this  committee,  there  is  a  strange  incongruity  in 
putting  in  charge  of  that  sort  of  work  a  geologist  and  anthropologist 
in  place  of  a  geodesist  and  a  mathematician.  Maj.  Powell  is  a  distin- 
guished gentleman,  but,  as  I  said,  he  does  not  pretend  to  have  studied 
geodesy  and  the  sciences  which  are  allied  to  that.  I  will  tell  you  the 
difference  between  geological  and  geodetic  work.  Geodetic  work  com- 
prises the  work  of  precise  triangulation  and  a  precise  determination 
of  astronomical  positions  of  latitude  and  longitude.  It  comprises  also 
a  determination  of  magnetic  forces,  a  precise  study  of  the  phenomena 
of  the  earth's  magnetism.  It  comprises  also  a  precise  study  of 
tidal  observations  whereby  they  are  able  to  predict  the  state  of  the 
tide  several  years  ahead.  Geology  explores  the  crust  of  the  earth,  it 
goes  into  the  crust,  while  geodesy  stays  on  the  outside.  It  is  neces- 
sary for  the  delineation  of  geological  conditions  to  have  maps,  and 
hence  they  make  maps,  and  the  Geological  Survey  makes  maps  which 
are  useful  for  their  special  purpose,  but  there  is  no  conflict  between 
the  Geological  and  the  Geodetic  Survey.  I  know  that,  for  I  have  been 
connected  with  both,  and  if  there  had  been  a  conflict  I  would  have  run 
against  it.  Kow,  the  Geological  Survey  makes  use  of  much  of  the 
geodetic  work,  especially  of  the  triangulation s,  because  that  is  done  on 
a  very  precise  basis,  and  it  suffices  for  the  geologist  when  he  wishes  to 
make  a  map  to  have  one  point  on  the  map  whose  latitude  and  longi- 
tude are  determined;  then,  on  the  minor  surveys,  he  can  construct  a 
map  which  is  good  enough  for  his  purpose.  Understand,  the  maps  of 
the  Geological  Survey  are  geological;  they  are  not  carried  to  a  special 
degree  of  refinement,  but  they  are  sufficient  for  the  geologist.  I  am 
not  at  all  disposed  to  say  anything  against  the  Geological  Survey. 

Mr.  McAleer.  In  other  words,  one  department  keeps  on  top  of  the 
ground  and  the  other  goes  underneath? 

Prof.  Woodward.  That  seems  to  be  the  tendency  of  this  bill.  This 
bill  would  keep  them  all  the  time  in  hot  water,  and  the  result  will  be 
anything  but  creditable  to  American  science  and  American  statesman- 
ship. 


30  TRANSFER    OF    COAST    AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY. 


STATEMENT  OF  PROF.  GEORGE  H.  WILLIAMS,  OF  JOHNS  HOPKINS 

UNIVERSITY. 

Mr.  Williams  then  addressed  the  coDimittee.    He  said: 

Mr.  Chairman  and  gentlemen  of  the  committee,  at  the  request  of  a 
member  of  the  committee  it  was  desired  a  representation  of  Johns  Hop- 
kins University,  of  Baltimore,  should  be  here,  and  as  time  elapsed 
President  Gilman,  who  endeavored  and  would  hav^e  liked  to  have  been 
here,  was  detained  by  an  important  meeting,  and  he  designated  my 
colleague,  Dr.  Clark,  and  myself  to  represent  him,  and  to  represent  the 
general  feeling:  of  the  entire  scientific  faculty  of  Johns  Hopkins  Uni- 
versity. President  Gilman  was  at  one  time  professor  of  i)hysical  geog- 
raphy of  Yale  College,  and  it  is  one  of  the  subjects  in  which  he  has  most 
special  knowledge  and  has  special  interest,  and  he  wishes  me  to  say  that 
every  man  of  our  colleagues  of  that  faculty,  and  I  myself,  firmly  be- 
lieve it  would  be,  as  Prof.  Woodward  says,  a  great  scientific  calamity  to 
this  country  to  have  this  transfer  made. 

I  have  listened  with  great  interest  to  Prof.  Woodward's  very  able 
and  detailed  statement,  and  I  can  only  say  that  I  and  all  scientific 
men  I  know  of  would  most  heartily  indorse  it  in  the  main.  It  does  seem 
to  me  that  if  one  thing  is  plainer  than  another  it  is  that  a  scientific 
man  to  be  a  success  must  be  able  not  to  give  up  fifteen  or  twenty  years 
but  his  entire  life,  from  the  time  he  starts  in  his  career  until  his  death, 
in  attempting  to  accomplish  some  one  idea.  Now,  if  the  competition  is 
as  great  as  it  is  certainly  becoming  in  order  for  a  man  to  compete,  he 
must  do  this  because  competition,  being  as  it  is,  the  number  of  men 
crowding  into  scientific  careers  in  this  countrj^,  increasing  as  rapidly 
as  it  is  increasing,  it  does  seem  to  me  that  any  man  who  is  not  able  to 
do  this  will  be  left  far  behind  in  the  race.  There  are  enough  very  able 
men  who  are  going  into  these  careers  which  will  render  any  competi- 
tion by  able  men  who  are  hampered  by  the  time  they  can  devote  to 
this  subject  practically  out  of  the  race  altogether.  Furthermore,  it 
seems  to  me  that  it  is  of  great  interest  for  scientific  purposes  that  an 
independent  bureau  should  conduct  this  work.  As  I  understand  from 
the  bill,  it  is  not  the  intention,  as  I  hear  reiterated  by  members  of  the 
committee,  in  any  way  to  interfere  or  abolish  the  work,  but  merely  to 
divide  it,  a  part  going  to  the  Isavy  and  a  part  to  the  Geological  Sur- 
vey. I  have  been  for  eleven  years  myself  an  active  member  of  the 
Geological  Survey,  doing  work  for  them  each  year,  and  I  use  the  maps 
of  the  Geological  Survey  all  the  time,  and  have  also  had  occasion  to 
use  the  maps  of  the  Coast  Survey,  and  I  must  say  there  is  no  compari- 
son between  them.    The  Coast  Survey  maps  are  much  better. 

Mr.  Enloe  suggests  that  there  is  an  amount  of  duplication.  The  Geo- 
logical Survey  at  the  present  is  only  too  glad  to  make  use  of  the  Coast 
Survey  results,  but  where  Coast  Survey  data  is  employed  it  is  of  a 
higher  quality  than  the  work  that  is  done  by  the  Geological  Survey, 
but  there  is  no  time  for  me  to  enter  into  a  discussion  of  that  subject, 
and  I  am  here  to  say  that  among  every  body  of  scientific  men  the  feel- 
ing is  certainly  united,  very  sincere  on  their  part,  in  the  opinion  that 
this  would  be  a  calamity,  and  we  desire  if  possible  to  enter  our  protest 
most  emphatically  against  it. 

I  thank  you  gentlemen  for  your  kind  attention. 

Thereupon  the  committee  adjourned. 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.       31 

Committee  on  Naval  Affairs, 

Friday^  May  4,  1894. 

The  Committee  on  Naval  Affairs  this  day  met,  Hon.  Amos  J.  Cum- 
mings  in  the  chair.  The  committee  had  under  consideration  H.  R.  6338. 
Hon.  B.  A.  Enloe,  a  representative  from  the  State  of  Tennessee,  and  Mr. 
R.C.Glasscock,  of  Washington,  D.  C,  appeared  before  the  committee. 

The  Chairman.  We  will  now  hear  Mr.  Enloe  in  favor  of  his  bill  for 
the  transfer  of  the  hydrographic  portion  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Sur- 
vey to  the  Navy  Department,  and  the  geodetic  portion  to  the  Geolog- 
ical Survey. 

(To  Mr.  Enloe):  Are  you  ready  to  proceed'? 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  believe  I  will  ask  you  to  hear  Mr.  Glasscock  first. 

The  Chairman.  Then  we  will  hear  Mr.  Glasscock. 

STATEMENT  OF  MR.  R.  C.  GLASSCOCK,  OF  WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

Mr.  Glasscock  then  addressed  the  committee.  He  said: 
Mr.  Chairman  and  gentlemen  of  the  committee,  I  am  here  to-day 
to  represent  the  other  side  of  this  question  with  reference  to  the 
transfer  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  to  the  Hydographic  Office  of 
the  Navy  Department  and  to  the  Geological  Survey.  This  is  a  question 
that  is  not  new.  It  has  been  cffit  ially  agitated  for  more  than  ten  years 
past.  Secretary  Chandler,  Secretary  of  the  Navy  during  President 
Arthur's  administration,  recommended  this,  and  President  Cleveland  so 
far  back  as  ten  years  ago  had  this  to  say  in  his  message  to  Congress: 

The  work  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  was  durinpj  the  last  fiscal  year  carried 
on  within  the  boundaries  and  off  the  coast  of  thirty  two  States,  two  Territories,  and 
the  District  of  Columbia.  In  July  last  certain  irregularities  were  found  to  exist  in 
the  management  of  this  Bureau,  which  led  to  a  prompt  investigation  of  its  methods. 
The  abuses  that  were  brought  to  light  by  this  examination  and  the  reckless  disre- 
gard of  duty  and  the  interest  of  the  Government,  developed  on  the  part  of  some  of 
those  connected  with  the  service,  made  a  change  of  superintendency  and  a  few  of 
its  other  officers  necessary.  Since  the  Bureau  has  been  in  new  hands  an  introduc- 
tion of  economies  and  the  application  of  business  methods  have  produced  an  impor- 
tant saving  to  the  Government  and  a  promise  of  more  useful  results.  This  service 
has  never  been  regulated  by  anything  but  the  most  indefinite  legal  enactments  and 
the  most  unsatisfactory  rules.  It  was  many  years  ago  sanctioned  apparently  for  a 
purpose  regarded  as  temporary  and  related  to  a  survey  of  our  coast.  Having  gained 
a  place  in  the  appropriations  made  by  Congress,  it  has  gradually  taken  to  itself 
powers  and  objects  not  contemplated  in  its  creation,  and  extended  its  operations 
until  it  sadly  needs  legislative  attention. 

So  far  as  the  further  survey  of  our  coast  is  concerned,  there  seems  to  be  a  pro- 
priety of  transferring  that  Avork  to  the  Navy  Department.  The  other  duties  now 
in  charge  of  this  establishment,  if  they  can  not  be  profiitably  attached  to  some 
existing  Department  or  other  bureau,  should  be  prosecuted  under  a  law  exactly 
defining  their  scope  and  purpose,  and  with  a  careful  discrimination  between  the 
scientific  inquiries  which  may  properly  be  assumed  by  the  Government  aqd  those 
which  should  be  undertaken  by  State  authority  or  by  individual  enterprise. 

That  is  President  Cleveland's  message  of  ten  years  ago.  Now,  sir, 
there  has  never  been  a  case  which  has  been  prepared  for  consideration 
that  has  attracted  more  authoritative  consideration  than  this  question 
you  are  now  about  to  consider.  In  1884  a  joint  commission  was 
appointed  by  both  branches  of  Congress  to  consider  this  question,  and 
my  duty  to-day  will  be  to  refer  you  particularly  to  the  testimony  taken 
before  that  joint  commission,  and  also  to  the  minority  report,  which 
favors  the  transfer  of  this  Bureau  to  the  Navy  Department,  signed  by 
the  present  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  Mr.  Herbert,  and  Senator  Morgan. 
There  was  also  a  majority  report,  signed  by  Mr.  Allison,  Mr.  Hale,  and 
Mr.  Lowry,  against  transferring  it. 


\! 


32       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

Now,  gentlemen,  I  do  not  propose  to  do  much  else  than  refer  you  to 
this  testimony,  for  anything  T  can  say  in  n)y  individual  capacity,  I 
imagine,  will  have  very  little  weight,  but  it  is  only  the  testimony;  and 
I  will  say  that,  in  collating  this  testimony,  we  not  only  go  to  the  Sec- 
retaries of  the  Navy,  to  the  Hydrographic  Office  of  the  Xavy  Depart- 
ment, and  the  Geological  Survey,  but  we  go  to  the  Coast  Survey  itself, 
and  we  will  produce  before  you  here  to-day  evidence  of  Coast  Survey 
officials  to  sustain  the  recommendations  that  this  work  ought  to  be 
transferred. 

Now,  gentlemen,  I  wish  to  say  right  here  that  the  question  w^as 
raised  the  other  day  by  Prof.  Woodward,  when  he  appeared  before 
your  committee,  as  to  what  should  be  done  with  the  weights  and  meas- 
ures department,  which  is  also  in  the  Coast  Survey.  When  I  come  to 
the  proper  place  I  shall  have  something  to  say  upon  that  subject. 

The  following  are  some  of  the  reasons  why  the  hydrographic  part  of 
the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  should  be  transferred  from  the  Treas- 
ury Department  to  the  Navy  Department  and  the  geodetic  part  to 
the  Geological  Survey : 

(1)  All  the  coast  surveys  are  completed  and  have  been  virtually  so 
since  1879,  except  a  small  portion  (about  one-tenth)  on  the  Atlantic 
Coast  and  two-fifths  of  the  Pacific  Coast. 

(2)  All  the  hydrographic  work  that  the  Coast  Survey  has  been  credited 
with  for  more  than  twenty-five  years  has  been  done  by  naval  officers, 
and  is  to-day  being  done  by  naval  officers  through  a  hydrographic 
inspector  stationed  in  the  Coast  Survey  building. 

(3)  The  geodetic  work  being  done  by  the  Coast  Survey  is  duplicated 
to  a  great  extenr  by  the  Geological  Surve}^,  and  the  cost  of  it  done*  by 
the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  is  $100  per  square  mile,  while  the  cost 
of  that  done  by  the  Geological  Survey  is  on  an  average  of  about  $3 
per  square  mile. 

(4)  The  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  while  technically  under  the 
Treasury  Department,  is  virtually  an  "  independent  bureau;"  con- 
sequently, in  its  efforts  to  cover  up  decrease  of  work  and  to  maintain 
a  steady  increase  of  salaries,  it  has  grown  fouland  corrupt,  which  cul- 
minated a  few  years  ago  in  an  investigation^niat'proved  disgraceful 
to  the  management  and  disastrous  to  the  work.  Since  then  it  has 
been  regarded  with  more  or  less  suspicion,  and  to-day  is  not  free  from 
adverse  criticism.  In  order  to  meet  the  political  complexion  of  any 
administration  that  happens  to  come  into  power,  the  combination  that 
"runs  it"  is  composed  of  Eepublicans  and  Democrats,  and  the  alli- 
ance is  ''offensive  and  defensive."  ''Offensive,"  as  has  already  been 
shown  when  you  recall  the  attack  made  on  the  Secretaries  of  the  Navy 
and  Treasury  and  on  the  naval  officers  the  other  day  by  Mr.  Wood- 
ward, and  "defensive, "  as  will  appear  by  testimony  later  on. 

(5)  "  The  Hydrographic  Office  in  the  Navy  Department  is  established 
by  law  (says  Secretary  W.  E.  Chandler,  Senate  Mis.  Doc.  No.  82,  vol. 
4,  p.  64)  for  the  improvement  of  the  means  for  navigating  safely  the 
vessels  of  the  Navy  and  the  mercantile  marine  by  providing,  under 
the  authority  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  accurate  and  cheap  nauti- 
cal charts,  sailing  directions,  and  manuals  of  instructions  for  the  use 
of  all  vessels  of  the  United  States  and  for  the  benefit  and  use  of  navi- 
gation generally.  The  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  whose  geodetic 
branch  overlaps  the  work  of  the  Geological  Survey  and  whose  hydro- 
graphic  branch  overlaps  the  work  of  the  Hydrographic  Office,  has  no 
connection  whatever  with  the  Treasury  Dei)artment,  under  which  it  is 
placed." 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.        38 

^  (6)  One-ten  til  of  the  survey  of  the  Atlantic  coast  is  kex)tin  an  unfin- 
ished condition  in  order  to  influence  appropriations  and  to  perpetuate 
the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey. 

To  sustain  these  reasons  I  will  call  your  attention  to  the  testimony 
taken  before  joint  committee  commissioned  under  an  act  of  Congress 
July  7,  1884,  and  continued  again  on  March  3,  1885,  to  consider  the 
present  organization  of  the  "  Signal  Service,  Coast  and  Geodetic  Sur- 
vey, Geological  Survey,  and  theHydrographicOfSce  of  the  Navy  Depart- 
ment, with  a  view  to  secure  greater  efficiency  and  economy  of  admin- 
istration of  the  public  service."  (Senate  Mis.  Doc.  No.  82,  first  session, 
Forty-ninth  Congress,  vol.  1.)  I  ali^o  commend  to  your  careful  consid- 
eration the  minority  report  of  the  said  Commission  to  be  found  in  vol. 
7,  first  session,  rorty-ninth  Congress,  Senate  Eeports. 

The  Coast  Survey  was  originally  organized  by  an  act  of  Congress 
in  1807  for  the  purpose  of  surveying  the  coast  within  20  leagues  of  the 
shore,  the  work  to  be  illustrated  by  maps  showing  islands,  shoals,  roads, 
or  places  of  entrance,  together  with  such  other  matters  as  might  be 
deemed  best  for  completing  an  accurate  chart  of  the  coasts  within  the 
extent  of  the  United  States. 

Mr.  Enloe.  That  is  within  20  leagues  of  the  shore  on  the  water,  or 
is  it  20  leagues  on  land,  I  only  want  to  know? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  I  am  only  quoting  the  law. 

Mr.  Talbott.  You  must  go  waterwards. 

Mr.  Glasscock.  I  am  simply  giving  the  law  authorizing  this.  Sec- 
retary of  the  Navy  W.  E.  Chandler  says,  in  a  letter  to  the  joint  com- 
mission (Mis.  Doc.  No.  82,  vol.  4,  first  session,  Forty-ninth  Congress,  p. 
64): 

This  survey  might  with  proper  diligence  have  been  completed  in  seventy-five 
years.  As  the  time  must  sooner  or  later  arrive  for  its  completion,  it  became  neces- 
sary to  delay  the  completion  of  the  hydrographic  charts  until  some  new  branch  of 
■work  to  justify  the  continuance  of  a  separate  organization  could  be  firmly  estab- 
lished. 

Accordingly,'  in  the  sundry  civil  bill  of  March  3, 1871,  appeared  an 
appropriation  of  $15,000  "for  extending  the  triangulation of  the  coast 
survey  so  as  to  form  a  geodetic  connection  between  the  Atlantic  and 
Pacific  coasts." 

From  this  minute  beginning  dates  a  complete  revolution  in  the  (orig- 
inal) purpose  of  the  Treasury  Bureau  then  known  as  the  Coast  Survey. 
By  carefully  drawn  and  unobtrusive  provisions  in  the  annual  estimates, 
which  have  been  followed  in  the  appropriation  bills,  the  change  has 
been  brought  about  by  imperceptible  changes,  until  now  a  large  part 
of  the  appropriation  which  was  formerly  devoted  to  coast  work  has 
become  absorbed  by  labors  in  the  interior. 

When  this  last  work  was  securely  established  the  organization  took 
upon  itself  the  name  of  "  The  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,"  which  name 
was  officially  recognized  in  the  appropriation  act  of  1879,  and  in  the 
year  1881-^82  the  expenditure  for  triangulation  and  topography 
amounted  to  $132,000,  while  for  those  for  hydrography  was  only  $36,000. 

I  wish  to  say  here,  in  respect  to  a  gentleman  I  am  about  to  mention, 
that  he  is  one  of  the  few  men  in  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  who 
has  stood  the  test  of  all  the  scandal  and  has  come  out  unscathed  and 
stands  to-day  pure  and  perfect,  so  far  as  any  scandal  is  ox)ncerned ;  and 
I  regard  him,  although  he  might  be  mentioned  as  one  of  those  "  damn 
computers  "  we  heard  about  the  other  day,  as  an  estimable  gentleman 
and  a  gentleman  of  high  learning  and  high  ability,  and  I  am  glad  to  have 
an  opportunity  of  saying  so. 
4561 3 


34       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

Mr.  O.  A.  Schott,  chief  of  the  "Computing  Division,"  in  the  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey,  in  a  letter  to  the  joint  commission,  page  367,  vol.  4, 
defined  "geodesy"  as  a  science  which  has  for  its  object  primarily  the 
determination  of  the  figure  of  the  earth  and,  secondarily,  the  mathe- 
matical definition  of  the  position  of  objects  uj^on  its  surface,  and,  con- 
sequently, of  their  mutual  relations."  Do  you  understand  this?  Let 
me  explain  further.  If  I  were  a  draftsman  I  would  draw  the  earth 
showing  the  mountains  and  valleys,  and  on  the  top  of  one  of  the 
mountains  I  would  draw  a  tree,  and  by  some  mathematical  computa- 
tion I  would  determine  the  "mutual  relations"  that  exist  between  the 
earth,  the  mountain,  the  valleys,  and  the  tree. 

This  explanation  may  be  deemed  as  a  little  grotesque,  but  if  you  will 
look  at  it  a  little  you  will  find  it  expresses  as  near  as  a  man  who  is  not 
an  experienced  scientific  man  can  come  to  this  matter. 

Of  what  use  can  be  made  of  this  work  when  finished?  In  the  first 
place,  it  is  not  admitted  by  anyone  that  it  will  ever  be  finished. 

I  think  you  had  it  verified  the  other  day  when  the  question  was  asked 
of  Prof.  Woodward  when  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  intended  to 
finish  its  work  and  he  replied  they  never  intended  to  finish,  or  it  would 
never  be  finished,  or  something  of  that  kind;  and  the  use  of  it  is 
beyond  the  comprehension  of  all  who  have  tackled  it,  including  the 
joint  commission. 

Maj.  Powell,  chief  of  the  Geological  Survey,  testifies  before  the  joint 
commission  (vol.  4,  p.  198)  as  follows: 

I  am  unable  to  state  any  useful  purpose  which  this  cadastral  or  artificial  element 
in  the  coast  charts  sabserve.  First,  becaus^it  is  not  executed  so  as  to  form  a  com- 
plete cadastral  map.  Secoud,  because  the  artificial  topographic  features  are  ephem- 
eral. That  is,  this  culture  changes  from  year  to  year  in  such  a  manner  that  the 
charts  speedily  become  misleading. 

In  illustration  of  this  fact  I  may  state  that  one  of  the  commissioners  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts survey  informs  me  that  he  has  lately  examined  certain  charts  made  in 
Massachusetts  on  this  plan,  and  he  discovers  that  in  the  areas  coming  under  his  eye 
50  per  cent  of  the  houses  placed  upon  the  charts  twenty  years  ago  have  disappeared 
on  the  old  charts,  and  i^hat  the  confusion  arising  from  these  two  causes  renders  the 
charts  almost  unintelligible.  He  also  informs  me  that  the  same  confusion  arises 
from  the  delineation  of  fences,  but  to  a  greater  extent,  and  that  a  similar  confusion 
arises  through  the  delineation  of  minor  public  or  private  roads,  but  not  to  so  great 
an  extent. 

E^ow,  gentlemen,  we  will  come  to  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  and 
take  one  of  the  officials  there  and  see  what  he  has  to  say  about  it. 

Benj.  A.  Colonna,  now  assistant  in  charge  of  the  office  of  the  Coast 
and  Geodetic  Survey,  ranking  next  the  Superintendent  as  second  in 
authority,  was  before  the  joint  commission  and  was  asked  this  question 
concerning  this  work  (vol.  4,  p.  868). 

Q.  But  for  purposes  of  map-making  it  would  be  of  no  use? — A.  Of  no  use  in  map- 
making,  so  far  as  the  delineation  of  separate  sheets,  but  of  much  use  to  make  these 
sheets  join. 

We  confess  we  can  not  comprehend  this  [says  the  minority  report  of  this  joint 
commission,  vol.  7,  p.  71].  But  we  can  understand  this  great  arc  of  triangles,  and 
indeed  we  consider  it  quite  intelligible  and  entirely  consistent  with  all  the  facts, 
when  we  regard  it  as  a  part  of  the  system  which  the  Coast  Survey,  without  author- 
ity of  organic  law,  and  by  what  have  been  aptly  called  ^'unobtrusive  provisions'' 
in  approjoriation  bills  has  undertaken  for  the  survey  of  the  whole  United  States. 

Now  we  want  to  know  how  much  this  geodetic  work  is  going  to  cost? 

Prof.  Hilgard,  who  was  Superintendent  of  the  Coast  Survey  at  that 
time,  testified  before  the  joint  commission  (vol.  4,  p.  157)  that  he  esti- 
mated ^'  to  make  a  skeleton  of  triangles  over  the  United  States  on  a 
basis  of  $4,000,000  will  require  fifty  years." 

Herbert  G.  Ogden,  now  chief  of  the  Engraving  Division  of  the  Coast  Survey 
[says  the  minority  report],  gravely  testified  before  the  commission  (vol.  4,  p.  620) 


TKANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.       35 

that  as  the  Coast  Survey  maps  were  admitted  to  be  accurate  and  were  said  to  cost 
$100  per  square  mile,  and  as  the  topography  of  the  Geological  Survey  was  said  to 
cost  only  $3,  therefore  the  latter  was  only  3  per  cent  of  the  correct  survey.  We 
cite  this  reasoning  simply  because  it  seems  to  us  to  illustrate  the  extravagant 
methods  of  this  Bureau. 

As  there  is  about  3,625,000  square  miles  in  tlie  United  States,  this 
would  make  the  work  cost  over  $362,500,000. 

Maj.  Powell  of  the  Geological  Survey  testified  before  the  commission 
(vol.  4,  p.  638) : 

That  to  do  the  topography  of  the  whol6  United  States  as  that  of  the  coast  is 
being  done  by  the  Coast  Survey  would  require  400,000  sheets  equal  to  a  library  of 
SfOdO  large  folio  volumes,  and  would  cost  $350,000,000. 

And  on  page  206  of  the  same  book,  he  testifies  that — 

There  is  no  substantial  difference  in  the  accuracy  of  the  charts  of  the  Coast 
Survey  and  Topographic  maps  of  the  Geological  Survey  as  maps. 

And  on  page  607  same  book,  he  testifies  that: 

The  cost  of  the  Topographic  Survey  which  is  preceded  by  the  Geological  Survey, 
and  which  maps  subserve  the  purpose  above  enumerated,  is  greatly  variable  in  dif- 
ferent portions  of  the  country, 

but  he  states  the  cost  to  be  from  $1.50  to  $5  per  square  mile. 

(To  his  son) :  Now,  let  me  have  those  maps.  Now,  gentlemen,  I  want 
to  show  you  the  work  of  the  two  surveys  [exhibiting  maps].  Here  is 
the  Coast  and  Geodetic  work  across  the  continent  that  has  cost,  as 
these  experts  say,  $100  per  square  mile.  It  takes  two  maps  to  show  it 
all.  This  is  the  work  of  the  Coast  Survey  that  is  costing  $100  per 
square  mile  according  to  this  testimony,  and  here  is  the  map  of  the 
Geological  Survey  that  is  costing  from  $5  to  $10  per  square  mile. 
Here  is  one  which  costs  $5  per  square  mile  [exhibiting  same].  I  got 
the  prices  that  I  have  marked  on  it  from,  the  man  who  has  charge  of 
the  maps  at  the  Geological  Survey.  This  map  here  is  from  the  Geo- 
logical Survey  which  cost  from  $5  to  $10  per  square  mile,  and  this  is 
from  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  which  is  said  to  have  cost  $100 
per  square  mile  [exhibiting  same]. 

Mr.  Kandall.  How  do  you  explain  the  difference  between  the  cost? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  I  can  not  say. 

Mr.  Eandall.  Do  they  cover  the  same  ground  in  the  same  localities, 
or  is  one  on  the  ocean  and  the  other  on  the  land  ? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  Why  they  are  both  on  land,  the  Coast  and  Geo- 
detic Survey  do  only  land  work.    If  you  will  examine 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  Is  this  entirely  new? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  Yes,  sirj  I  just  got  them  a  few  days  ago  from  the 
Geological  Survey. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  The  work  I  mean? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  Yes,  sir. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  It  is  not  based  upon  old  work  that  is  made  a 
groundwork  for  this? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  I  presume  not,  but  I  am  not  familiar  enough  with 
map  making  to  tell  you  that. 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  see  from  the  dates  on  it  that  this  is  surveyed  in  1882, 
1883,  1884,  1887,  1888. 

Mr.  Glasscock.  I  presume  they  have  the  dates.  Your  question  can 
be  better  answered  by  examining  the  maps  of  the  geodetic  work  and 
the  maps  of  the  Geological  Survey. 

Mr.  Talbott.  But  do  they  do  the  same  work  in  the  same  locality  at 
different  rates  of  cost  ? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  Well,  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  does  not  do 


36  TflANSFER    OF    COAST    AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY. 

any  Geological  Survey  work.  That  is  tlie  question  that  was  put  and 
Prof.  Woodward  was  very  positive  in  answering  it.  The  chairman,  it 
seems,  in  some  communication,  had  asked  him  the  question  if  the  Coast 
and  Geodetic  Survey  did  any  Geological  Survey  work,  and  Mr.  Wood- 
ward answered  that  they  did  not.  That  is  true,  but  the  Geological  Sur- 
vey does  do  geodetic  work.     You  have  got  the  question  just  reversed. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  I  notice  that  is  a  large  map  and  it  is  outlined, 
while  this  small  map  apparently  has  the  same  outlines,  but  is  worked 
out  and  filled  in  ? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  I  brought  this  here  to  demonstrate  this  is  the  work 
as  it  comes  out  in  their  reports,  and  it  demonstrates  that  the  very  work 
as  done  by  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  is  work  done  by  the  Geo- 
logical Survey.  Here  is  the  way  the  work  of  both  those  bureaus  gets 
before  the  public.    This  was  cut  out  of  one  of  their  annual  reports. 

Mr.  Money.  I  was  about  to  ask  you  if  it  will  not  interrupt  your 
argument 

Mr.  Glasscock.  I  would  be  pleased  to  answer. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  If  you  will  pardon  me,  Mr.  Money,  what  I 
meant  was  this,  was  it  not  more  a  matter  of  mere  details  of  shading 
than  anything  else? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  That  is  intended  more  for  a  geological  map  of  that 
part  of  the  country. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  Would  not  this  map  cover  the  same  ground^ 
the  outlines  being  the  determining  lines? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  If  you  are  able  to  determine  that  fact 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  I  asked  you;  we  are  seeking  the  information. 

Mr.  Glasscock.  I  do  not  know;  as  I  say,  what  use  is  all  of  this'? 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  That  is  another  point. 

Mr.  Glasscock.  What  use  is  it,  as  the  joint  commission  further  say 
they  are  unable  to  comprehend  the  use  of  all  of  this  work? 

Mr.  Enloe.  They  sometimes  demonstrate  an  error  of  probably  an 
inch  in  a  mile  in  surveying. 

Mr.  Glasscock.  I  know  that  is  given  in  some  testimony  as  probably 
coming  within  a  fiftieth  part  of  an  inch  or  an  inch  in  so  many  miles  of 
the  correctness  of  the  survey.  What  I  brought  these  maps  here  for, 
gentlemen,  was  to  illustrate  to  you  the  different  kind  of  work  done  by 
the  two  surveys.  Here  you  have  it  by  the  Geological  Survey  in  these 
maps,  and  here  you  have  it  in  the  Coast  Survey.  This  map  costs  the 
country  $100  per  square  mile,  according  to  their  own  testimony,  and 
this  is  costing  the  country  $5  to  $10  per  square  mile  according  to  their 
own  testimony,  all  of  which  is  referred  to  in  this  book. 

Mr.  Money.  The  question  I  was  about  to  ask  you  is  this,  you  say 
that  this  map  cost  $100  per  square  mile  and  this  cost  $5  per  square 
mile? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  Yes,  sir. 

Mr.  Money.  What  do  I  understand  by  that;  does  that  include  the 
cost  of  labor  in  the  field,  of  the  bureaus  here,  of  officers  here,  of  the 
whole  outfit,  and  everything?  Is  everything  of  that  kind  included  to 
make  up  this  cost? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  I  presume  it  is  the  work  in  the  field. 

Mr.  Money.  It  does  not  convey  any  meaning  to  my  mind  at  all. 

Mr.  Glasscock.  I  can  only  tell  you  as  far  as  1  know,  and  I  confess 
I  am  not  very  well  versed  in  these  matters,  because  I  am  not  a  map 
maker,  but  I  guess  this  is  the  cost  of  the  work  in  the  field,  not  the  work 
in  the  office. 


1^ 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.       37 

Mr.  Money.  Do  we  understand  this  map  we  have  here  cost  $100  per 
square  mile? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  That  is  what  the  testimony  shows. 

Mr.  Money.  You  know  that  is  not  true,  because  here  is  a  map  that 
inchides  hundreds  of  thousands  and  millions  of  square  miles'? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  But  that  is  not  worked  all  over,  that  is  only  worked 
to  a  certain  extent. 

Mr.  Money.  Only  this  that  is  mapped  out  here? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  That  is  all  they  have  worked  out. 

Mr.  Money.  Then  what  does  all  this  mean  [illustrating  on  maps]  I 

Mr.  Enloe.  They  have  primary,  secondary,  and  tertiary  triangula- 
tions.  That  is  what  this  work  here  represents,  and  it  is  completed 
here  [illustrating]. 

Mr.  Money.  Then  this  map  shows  nothing  that  an  ordinary  geolog- 
ical map  does  not  show? 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  You  do  not  mean  there  is  no  notice  taken  of 
the  area? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  I  mean  this,  that  these  maps  represent  work  donej 
these  lines  here  represent  the  triangulatiou  done. 

The  Chairman.  Do  these  maps  represent  that  20  leagues? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  That  is  geodetic  workj  I  am  speaking  of  the 
work  across  the  continent. 

Mr.  Enloe  (to  Mr.  Money).  They  have  started  hereto  survey  a  line 
to  connect  the  Atlantic  with  the  Pacific  ocean,  as  I  understand,  and 
they  have  comj)leted  the  line  there  and  they  have  got  here  to  Colorado 
and  done  some  work  along  here  [illustrating],  and  then  they  have  done 
some  work  in  Kansas.  In  other  words,  they  are  doing  it  by  sections. 
They  have  done  a  little  in  connection  with  that  line  there,  and  are  proceed- 
ing to  complete  this  map  in  this  manner  to  cover  the  entire  area  of  the 
United  States,  and  when  they  cover  the  entire  area  of  the  United  States 
it  will  cost  $100  per  square  mile  to  the  Government. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  This  map  is  really  intended  to  show  the  public 
the  general  progress  of  this  work,  and  it  is  of  no  utility  or  value  what- 
ever to  anybody,  but  simply  designed  to  show  the  progress  of  the  work 
of  the  Geodetic  Survey  and  nothing  else? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  That  is,  all  their  work  that  they  have  done  through 
the  interior  of  the  country.  It  is  not  a  map  at  all,  and  the  testimony 
goes  to  show  that  it  is  of  no  use  as  a  map. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  It  does  purport  to  be  so.  It  purports  only  to 
be  a  sketch  of  the  general  progress 

Mr.  Glasscock.  Of  their  triaugulations  across  the  continent.  Now, 
let  me  read  what  this  commission 

Mr.  Enloe.  Just  one  moment;  there  is  this  point  in  there.  It  shows 
that  if  Congress  attempts  to  keep  up  the  appropriations  to  complete 
this  work  according  to  the  design  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey, 
that  when  it  is  completed  it  will  cost  $100  per  square  mile  for  the  entire 
area  of  the  United  States.    Do  you  understand  that? 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  An  aggregate  of  $350,006,000. 

Mr.  Enloe.  That  only  shows  the  progress  they  have  made  in  this 
work.  It  shows  what  part  is  completed,  what  part  is  primary,  what 
is  secondary,  etc. 

Mr.  Glasscock.  This  is  a  thing  that  is  absolutely  astounding,  and 
it  has  not  struck  you  any  harder  than  it  did  this  eonmiission.  I  want 
to  read  you  what  this  commission  says  about  this  thing. 

The  Chairman.  That  is  tlie  minority  report. 

Mr.  Glasscock.  This  is  the  minority  report  of  the  joint  commission. 


38       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

There  yoa  have  it;  you  are  not  the  only  parties  that  have  con- 
founded by  this  matter.  Parties  who  have  given  this  investigation 
months  after  months  have  been  obliged  to  acknowledge  that  they  did 
not  comprehend  it,  except  that  it  is  an  unobtrusive  provision  in  the 
appropriation  bills  to  perpetuate  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey.  That 
is  all  it  is.  And  you  must  in  forming  your  opinion  come  down  to  the 
testimony  taken  in  this  thing  and  you  must  consider  what  such  men 
as  Maj.  Powell  and  Mr.  B.  A.  Oolonna  say  when  they  tell  you  it  is  of 
no  use  for  niap-making.    Now,  Mr.  Colonna  testified 

The  Chairman.  One  minute  right  there.  It  seems  to  me  we  can 
draw  a  little  plainer  the  point  I  am  trying  to  make  in  regard  to  the 
Coast  and  Geodetic  and  the  Geological  Survey.  I  understand  you  to 
say  that  the  Geodetic  Survey  has  undertaken  to  make  a  map,  a  geo- 
detic map,  I  will  call  it,  of  the  United  States? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  The  Geodetic  Survey,  no,  sir.  You  did  not  under- 
stand me  to  say  anything  of  the  sort. 

The  Chairman.  Then  T  do  not  know  what  you  mean  by  saying  they 
are  attempting  to  make  a  connection  between  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific 
ocean  in  a  map;  I  understood  that  was  their  work? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  That  is  what  they  said,  and  nobody  is  able  to  under- 
stand it,  so  far  as  I  know,  unless  some  scientific  man  we  have  not  heard 
of  yet.  It  is  intended  to  make  a  connection  between  the  Atlantic  and 
the  Pacific  coast 

The  Chairman.  Is  that  not  the  same  that  the  Geological  Survey  is 
doing? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  To  a  certain  extent  wherever  they  go  along. 

The  Chairman.  Is  not  the  Geological  Survey  going  over  the  work 
the  Geodetic  Survey  has  marked  on  that  map  ? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  Well,  I  do  not  know  about  that. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Here  is  the  point  about  that,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  think. 
Tou  understand,  of  course,  the  object  of  this  base  line.  This  is  the 
base  line  from  which  they  are  to  triangulate  the  entire  United  States. 
Well,  I  do  not  understand  that  the  Geological  Survey  has  ever 
attempted  to  do  the  work  in  as  complete  a  form  as  the  Coast  and  Geo- 
detic Survey  is  doing  this  geodetic  work.  They  are  doing  it,  I  suppose^ 
as  far  as  I  know,  with  absolute  accuracy  as  nearly  as  it  can  be  done. 

The  Chairman.  They  claim  that  it  is. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Yes,  sir.  Now,  the  question  is  what  utility  is  there  in  it? 
The  Geological  Survey,  1  understand,  does  a  line  survey — for  it  is 
nothing  more  than  a  line  survey  in  simple  terms — and  it  does  that  sur- 
vey with  sufficient  accuracy  to  answer  all  purposes,  and  if  the  States 
want  any  more  detailed  maps  than  the  Geological  Survey  can  furnish, 
that  is  a  matter  that  ought  to  belong  to  the  municipalities  and  States. 

Mr.  Money.  The  Geological  Survey  establishes  lines  upon  which 
these  surveys  can  be  completed  ? 

The  Chairman.  The  Geological  Survey  is  doing  work  under  spe- 
cific law,  whereas  the  other  is  not  doing  the  work  under  specific  law? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  There  is  no  organic  law. 

Mr.  Money.  What  do  you  understand  by  an  organic  law? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  By  any  special  act  of  Congress. 

Mr.  Money.  That  is  not  organic  law  at  all.  This  provision  in  an 
appropriation  bill  is  just  as  much  law  as  if  a  specific  law  was  passed. 
Organic  law  relates  to  constitutions  strictly. 

Mr.  Glasscock.  I  am  only  quoting  from  what  Mr.  Herbert  said. 

Mr.  Money.  That  has  no  meaning  there  at  all. 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.       39^ 

Mr.  Glasscock.  They  do  it,  but  they  say  this,  that  they  get  this 
permission  through  an  appropriation  bill. 

Mr.  Money.  That  is  the  law. 

Mr.  Glasscock.  Of  course  it  is  law  but  it  is  not  organic  law.  The 
Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  was  not  created  by  organic  law. 

Mr.  Money.  That  is  very  true,  but  organic  law  refers  strictly  to 
constitutions  and  not  to  the  statutes. 

Mr.  Enloe.  That  term  has  no  meaning  except  that  it  ^eems  to  carry 
this  idea,  that  this  concern  is  acting  without  authority  of  law. 

Mr.  Money.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  word  ''organic"  simply  mis- 
leads. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Let  me  call  attention  to  this  suggestion.  I  observe  here 
in  discussing  matters  before  Congress  relating  to  a  resolution,  in  speak- 
ing of  legislation  in  an  a])propriation  bill  it  is  treated  as  being  of  a 
diiferent  character  of  legislation  from  legislation  in  a  separate  and  dis- 
tinct bill  organizing  a  bureau  for  a  purxjose.  IS'ow,  I  suppose  the  term 
''organic"  is  used  in  this  minority  report  referred  to  by  Mr.  Glasscock 
in  that  sense;  of  an  act  creating  and  outlining  work  and  specifying  its 
objects  and  purposes. 

Mr.  Money.  But  it  does  not  make  a  particle  of  difference,  and  the 
word  itself  is  simj)ly  misleading. 

The  Chairman.  As  far  as  these  bureaus  are  concerned,  the  Geologi 
cal  Survey  and  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  you  will  find  that  they 
both  originated  in  a  paragraph  making  an  appropriation  for  such  work 
in  an  appropriation  bill. 

Mr.  Money.  The  word  "  organic"  seems  to  be  misleading,  you  might 
go  to  almost  any  department  on  that  proposition  and  question  their 
right  to  exist.  That  is  a  thing  where  they  are  all  exactly  on  the  same 
footing. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Before  going  away  from  the  subject  of  maps  I  will  state 
I  had  occasion  to  investigate  that  matter  to  some  extent  and  tried  to 
understand  exactly  what  the  objects  and  purposes  of  this  Geodetic 
Survey  were.  We  have  maps  made  by  the  Geological  Survey,  and  all  maps 
which  are  printed  by  the  U.  S.  Government  are  printed  upon  surveys 
made  by  the  Geological  Survey.  Now,  that  for  all  practical  purposes  it 
seems  would  be  sufficient,  but  they  have  bureaus — and  these  gentlemen 
are  simply  doing  as  we  do  in  other  things,  imitating  European  gov- 
ernments— and  in  the  various  ends  of  science  they  make  what  are 
termed  cadastral  maps,  which  are  made  for  military  purposes,  and  they 
go  into  detail  with  so  much  accuracy  that  they  have  located  every- 
thing, so  that  a  military  officer  in  possession  of  one  of  those  maps  if  he 
were  to  invade  this  country  and  make  a  landing  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Kew  York,  Staten  Island,  or  Boston,  or  wherever  this  work  has  been 
followed,  would  know  every  obstruction  in  the  progress  of  a  military 
force,  he  would  know  the  exact  location  of  every  house,  of  every  promi- 
nent building,  etc.,  so  that  in  proceeding  with  military  operations  he 
would  know  exactly  how  to  move  round. 

Mr.  Money.  Let  me  ask  you  a  question.  Does  the  Geological  Sur- 
vey in  making  topographical  survey  do  exactly  that  work! 

Mr.  Enloe.  Not  with  that  degree  of  accuracy;  it  makes  a  general 
outline  but  it  does  rot  go  into  detail.  You  never  saw  a  map  of  the 
Geological  Survey  which  attemi)ted  to  locate  houses  and  streets,  and 
street  railway  lines,  ditches,  fences,  and  trees,  and  all  that  sort  of  things 
but  that  is  exactly  what  this  geodetic  work  is  when  it  is  completed. 

Mr.  Money.  A  few  years  ago 

Mr.  Enloe.  That  is  what  it  is  to  be  when  it  is  completed.    If  they 


40  TRANSFER    OF    COAST    AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY. 

go  on  with  this  triajigulation  that  they  have  here,  that  is,  of  course,  the 
basis  for  this  cadastral  map  work. 

Mr.  Money.  A  few  years  ago  the  Geological  Survey  were  making 
exactly  that  kind  of  a  map;  they  were  making  what  was  called  a  topo- 
graphical map  for  the  use  of  the  Army.  They  had  every  creek,  every 
ditch,  every  hill  of  any  sort  of  eminence,  or  house,  or  road,  or  cross- 
road, or  by-road,  or  anything  of  the  sort. 

Mr.  Enloe.  And  if  you  give  them  the  money  they  will  now.  That, 
of  course,  is  just  as  Congress  wants  it. 

Mr.  Money.  I  will  tell  you  how  I  happen  to  know.  My  son  is  a  boy 
18  years  of  age  and  he  had  charge  of  one  of  the  parties,  being  a  drafts- 
man, to  make  the  survey  and  to  make  a  drawing  of  everything  of  that 
sort. 

Mr.  Glasscock.  Here  is  one  of  the  maps  which  shows  all  that  now. 

Mr.  Money.  I  say  the  Geological  Survey  does  that. 

Mr.  Glasscock.  Except  that  they  do  not  do  it  on  such  an  expensive 
scale.  According  to  the  testimony  here  their  maps  cost  from  $1.50 
to  $10  per  square  mile,  and  while  this  work  is  notmaj)  work  yet  it  costs 
$100  per  square  mile. 

Mr.  Eand ALL.  How  is  that  difference  in  cost  explained  ? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  Why  they  say  that  is  owing  to  the  accuracy  of  the 
geodetic  work.    They  i^rofess  that  it  is  not  for  map  making. 

The  Ohaieman.  Let  us  try  to  get  at  an  understanding  of  it,  if  we 
can.  If  I  understand  you  correctly  you  assert  that  this  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey  is  doing  the  same  work  as  the  Geological  Survey  has 
done  or  is  doing,  claiming  that  they  are  doing  it  more  accurately  and 
more  thoroughly.     Is  that  it! 

Mr.  Glasscock.  No,  I  say  this.  That  the  work  the  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey  is  doing  is  not  geological  survey  work  at  all,  but  the 
Geological  Survey  does  do  geodetic  work,  and  the  work  that  the 
Geodetic  Survey  does  (Avhich  is  this  triangulation  all  over  the  country) 
is  costing  $100  x)er  square  mile. 

The  Chairman.  Does  it  not  go  over  the  same  ground  as  the  Geolog- 
ical Survey! 

Mr.  Glasscock.  The  Geological  Survey  goes  over  some  of  the 
ground  that  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  does,  sometimes. 

The  Chairman.  The  Geodetic  Survey  is  doing  work  in  the  interior 
of  the  country! 

Mr.  Glasscock.  Yes,  sir. 

The  Chairman.  Is  not  the  Geological  Survey  doing  the  same! 

Mr.  Glasscock.  Yes,  sir;  but 

The  Chairman.  The  only  difference  is  that  the  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey  goes  over  the  ground  more  in  detail  than  the  Geological  Sur- 
vey ;  is  that  it ! 

Mr.  Glasscock.  Yes;  but  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  is  doing 
this  triangulation  for  some  purpose,  we  do  not  know  what,  but  the  Geo- 
logical Survey,  of  course,  are  doing  their  work  for  the  purpose  of  making 
maps.  That  is  the  point  you  all  must  understand,  that  this  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey  is  of  no  use  for  map  making.  That  is  the  testimony 
piled  up 

The  Chairman.  And  the  Geological  Survey  is! 

Mr.  Glasscock.  And  the  Geological  Survey  is  for  map-making,  and 
as  the  Commission  says  and  everybody  else  says,  we  do  not  know  what 
this  geodetic  work  is  for  except  to  give  points  for  State  surveys,  if  they 
choose  to  ask  for  them.  That  is  one  of  the  reasons  they  give  for  the 
work,  but  these  authorities  that  1  have  quoted  here  say  that  they  can 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.       41 

not  uuderstaiid  it.  Now,  that  in  the  point  that  you  all  must  under- 
stand, that  they  can  not  understand,  and  that  I  can  not  make  you 
understand  for  what  purpose  it  is. 

The  Chairman.  Does  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  itself  under- 
stand? 

Mr.  Gi.ASSCOCK.  Well,  I  do  not  know.  Mr.  Colonna  says  it  is  of  no 
use  for  map-making,  but  of  great  use  for  connecting  the  sheets.  They 
are  expending  $100  per  square  mile  for  work  that  is  of  no  use  except 
for  connecting  the  sheets. 

The  Chairman.    Connecting  sheets  of  what! 

Mr.  Glasscock.  I  do  not  know  what  kind  of  sheets,  whether  they 
are  sheets  you  sleep  on  or  whether 

Mr.  Money.  If  you  will  refer  bUck  you  will  find  that  he  says  taken 
separately  they  may  be  of  little  utility,  but  when  taken  together  in  a 
great  map  they  will  be  of  great  utility. 

Mr.  Glasscock.  That  is  the  astounding  question. 

Mr.  Money.  On  this  line  of  argument  it  would  be  like  asking  these 
gentlemen  for  an  excuse  for  their  existence  in  the  Navy  Department  or 
anywhere  else. 

Mr.  (iLASscocK.  It  is  all  defined  here  in  these  few  words  which  are 
underscored  here.  Now,  gentlemen,  are  there  any  further  questions 
which  you  desire  to  ask  at  this  point? 

Mr.  Money.  I  want  to  say  one  word,  professor. 

Mr.  Glasscock.  Did  you  call  me  ''professor"?    I  am  not  a  professor. 

Mr.  Money.  You  have  ofiered  no  reason  to  us  to  support  the  bill  for 
the  transfer;  you  have  simply  presented  reasons  for  abolishing  the 
whole  thing. 

Mr.  Glasscock.  I  will  get  to  all  that,  but  I  have  not  got  to  it  yet. 
I  am  new  in  my  argument.  It  is  geodetic  work  that  I  have  been  talk- 
ing about. 

Mr.  McAleer.  The  abolition  of  it? 

^Mr.  Glasscock.  Well,  I  should  think  the  abolition  of  it  is  what 
ought  to  be.     So  much  for  the  geodetic  work  until  a  little  later  on.    Mr. 

Colonna  testified .     I  beg  to  introduce  again  Mr.  Colonna,  who  is 

to  day  assistant  in  charge  of  the  office  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Sur- 
vey, the  second  in  command  there.  Mr.  Colonna  in  1885,  gentlemen, 
you  must  recollect,  w^as  posing  before  this  commission  as  a  kind  of  a 
reformer.  It  is  true  that  he  had  just  been  raised  from  an  $1,800  position 
to  a  13,600  position,  and  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  was  at  that  time 
having  a  good  deal  of  trouble  at  the  Treasury  Department,  so  much  so 
tbat  its  very  existence  was  threatened,  and  Mr.  Colonna  was  a  little 
more  liberal  in  his  testimony,  perhaps  because  he  wanted  to  concede 
something;  he  wanted  to  save  the  Coast  Survey,  and  he  wanted  to  do 
the  best  he  could  to  try  and  save  it,  and  consequently  he  was  liberal 
in  giving  his  testimony.  Now,  we  will  see  w^hat  he  had  to  say  upon 
that  point.  It  turned  out  that  the  Coast  Survey  was  saved,  and  that 
Mr.  Colonna,  to  a  very  great  extent,  ran  it  for  the  next  four  years  after 
that.  It  was  true  that  Mr.  Thorne  was  Superintendent,  but  he  was  a 
civilian,  and  not  a  scientific  man  as  they  call  them  over  there,  and  Mr. 
Colonna,  having  been  long  in  the  service,  knew  all  about  it  and  virtually 
ran  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey.  Now,  let  us  see  who  does  the 
hydrographic  work  of  the  Coast  Survey.  Mr.  Colonna  testified  (p.  605, 
vol.  4)  as  follows : 

Q.  I  understood  you  to  say  a  moment  ago  that  the  bone'  of  contention  was  the 
Hydrographic  Office? — A,  The  hydrographic  work  of  Coast  Survey  is  what  the  Navy 
has  been  striving  after  for  a  long  time.     They  virtually  do  all  the  work  as  it  is. 


42    ■  TRANSFER    OF    COAST    xiND    GEODETIC    SURVEY. 

The  Chairman.  Colonna  says  tliis? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  Says  this  in  1885,  that  they  virtually  do  all  the 
work  as  it  is. 

The  Chairman.  That  does  not  agree  with  Prof.  Woodward's  state- 
ment? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  No,  sir.    They  bound  him  up  a  little  tighter,  too. 

Q.  Are  your  opportunities  for  observation  sufficient  to  tell  us  whether  or  not  that 
work  is  being  well  performed?  What  is  your  opinion  about  that? — A.  Yes,  sir;  I 
think  the  work  is  well  performed  in  the  main,  in  some  instances  with  distinguished 
ability ;  lor  instance,  the  steamer  Blake's  past  season's  work,  directed  by  Lieut. 
Pillsbury,  is  something  that  all  may  be  proud  of. 

Commander  John  R.  Bartlett,  chief  of  the  Hydrographic  Office  of  the 
Navy,  testifies  (p.  73,  vol.  4.) : 

"That  substantially  all  of  the  Coast  Survey  work  is  done  by  naval  officers,  and 
substantially  all  the  civilian  assistants  of  the  Coast  Survey  are  engaged  on  geodetic 
work. 

"Objection  is  made  to  naval  officers  doing  this  work,"  says  Mr. 
Woodward,  "because  they  remain  only  three  years,"  and  this  is 
answered  on  p.  76,  vol.  4,  by  Commander  Bartlett: 

With  regard  to  the  employment  of  the  naval  officers  at  the  Coast  Survey,  objec- 
tion has  been  made  to  the  fact  that  they  are  allowed  to  remain  there  only  three 
years  at  a  time.  The  Coast  Survey  goes  on,  and  their  surveys  go  on  even  if  this  rota- 
tion does  exist,  and  there  is  a  constant  demand  on  the  Navy  Department  for  officers 
of  this  service 

The  Chairman.  Whose  testimony  is  that,  Colonna  ? 
Mr.  Glasscock.  No,  Commander  Bartlett. 

One  point  to  be  considered  in  this  matter  is  the  fact  that  we  now  have  a  Naval 
School  at  Annapolis  wliich  has  been  conceded  by  graduates  of  West  Point,  by  mem- 
bers of  the  National  Academy,  and  by  prominent  civilians  who  have  examined  it,  to 
be  one  of  the  best  scientific  schools  in  this  or  any  other  country.  The  young  officers 
of  the  Navy  are  there  taught  thoroughly  all  the  branches  that  relate  to  surveying, 
and  it  is  only  the  young  men  that  are  wanted  in  the  Coast  Survey.  The  hydro- 
graphic  work  of  the  Coast  Survey  is  under  the  immediate  direction  of,  and  is  done 
entirely  by,  naval  officers.  There  are  no  civil  assistants  of  the  Coast  Survey  doing 
this  work. 

On  p.  65,  vol.  4,  will  be  found  the  following  testimony,  submitted  by 
Secretary  Chandler: 

In  the  annual  report  of  the  Navy  Department  for  1882  (twelve  years  ago),  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy  makes  the  following  statement :  For  the  past  fifty  years  the 
Coast  Survey  has  required  and  received  the  support  and  assistance  of  the  Navy. 
Thirty  naval  officers  a  year,  on  an  average,  have  been  engaged  in  the  work,  and 
during  the  last  ten  years  the  number  has  steadily  increased.  The  annual  report  of 
1883  says:  The  Coast  Survey,  originally  established  for  the  purpose  of  making 
hydrograi)hic  charts,  has  of  late  years  extended  its  functions  in  a  totally  different 
direction,  that  of  geodetic  surveys  in  the  interior.  In  making  these  extensions,  it 
has  gradually  abandoned  the  water  surveys  of  the  Navy,  iintil  now  the  actual 
work  in  this  field  is  done  almost  exclusively  by  naval  officers,  withdrawn  for  the 
purpose,  from  the  direction  and  control  of  their  own  department. 

•     Mr.  Geissenhainer.  What  is  the  date  of  that! 

Mr.  Glasscock.  This  is  the  report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  ]^avy  of 
1883. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  This  is  1894 j  have  the  conditions,  as  far  as 
you  know,  changed  at  all! 

Mr.  Glasscock.  They  have  changed  to  this  extent,  that  this  work 
ought  to  be  this  much  more  concluded. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  I  mean  in  regard  to  the  number  of  naval  offi- 
cers employed? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  There  are  more  naval  officers  employed  now  than 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.       4-6 

then,  according  to  the  last  report  I  have,  which  is  of  1889;  then  there 
were  312  seamen  employed  as  against  250. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer  .  In  that  service  ? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  In  this  service  now.  The  average  number  of  offi- 
cers for  the  year  ending  was  56, 1  think.  This  was  the  year  1889,  two 
or  three  years  later  than  that,  so  you  see  the  naval  force  has  increased. 
It  was  only  250  seamen  and  30  odd  officers,  and  now  it  has  56  officers 
and  312  seamen. 

The  Chairman.  Before  you  go  on  with  that  I  want  to  give  you  a  list 
of  officers  of  last  year  so  as  to  give  it  exactly.  This  is  according  to 
the  report  to  the  Fifty-second  Congress. 

The  Clerk.  The  report  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  to  the 
Fifty-second  Congress  shows,  officers  and  men  of  the  Navy  attached 
with  annual  pay  from  appropriations  for  the  Navy  received  by  them,  to 
be  39  officers  and  250  enlisted  men. 

Mr.  Glasscock.  This  I  see  is  House  Report  847,  first  session  Fifty- 
second  Congress. 

The  Clerk.  Yes,  sir. 

Mr.  Glasscock.  I  did  not  have  this  later  report;  consequently  I 
gave  it  for  1889. 

By  an  extraordinary  anomaly  in  legislation  the  U.  S.  Hydrographic  Office,  an 
indispensable  branch  of  the  Navy  Department,  is  allowed  to  survey  and  make  charts 
of  every  coast  in  the  world  bat  that  of  the  United  States,  while  the  best  naval  sur- 
veyors are  claimed  by  anotherdepartment  to  perform  this  work  under  its  supervision. 
Sixty-seven  naval  officers  are  now  directed  in  this  manner  from  the  direction  of  the 
Navy,  and  280  seamen  out  of  the  7,500  allowed  the  Navy,  are  now  on  board  Coast 
Survey  vessels. 

Mr.  Money.  In  other  words,  instead  of  transferring  that  Bureau  to 
the  Kavy,  they  have  transferred  the  Navy  to  that  Bureau? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  That  is  it  exactly,  so  far  as  the  hydrographic  work 
is  concerned,  and  it  is  all  done  under  the  supervision  of  the  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey,  and  it  is  testified  to  all  the  way  through  that  not  a  civil- 
ian assistant  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  does  any  of  this  hydro- 
graphic  work.  That  is  what  Secretary  Chandler  says,  and  I  ask  you 
all  to  read  his  whole  report.  You  will  find  it  here  in  this  testimony — 
but  I  will  quote  a  little  further : 

For  such  an  arrangement  there  might  be  some  show  of  reason  if  the  work  upon 
which  the  officers  are  engaged  were  especially  connected  with  the  Department  under 
which  they  are  placed,  and  remote  from  the  subjects  of  which  their  own  Department 
has  cognizance. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  The  Treasurer  does  not  know  anything  about 
it? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  The  Treasurer  does  not  pretend  to  direct  the  work. 
He  says  in  a  letter,  which  I  will  quote  you,  that  this  work  ought  to  be 
under  the  Navy  Department.  He  can  not  know  anything  about  it,  and 
he  has  nobody  to  advise  him  about  it,  but  the  IS'avy  Department  has; 
but,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  no  part  of  this  work  has  the  faintest  trace- 
able connection  with  the  general  purpose  of  the  Treasury,  that  its 
effectual  performance  is  of  vital  importance  to  the  Navy,  and  that  an 
office  exists  to-day  in  the  Navy  Department  where  similar  work  is 
necessarily  carried  on,  it  is  inconceivable  why  so  inconvenient,  artificial, 
and  indefensible  an  arrangement  should  be  perpetuated. 

For  further  and  latter  testimony  on  this  point  I  beg  to  refer  to  letters 
from  the  present  Secretaries  of  the  Navy  and  Treasury — Messrs.  Her- 
bert and  Carlisle — under  date  of  March  13  and  14,  1894,  to  Hon.  B.  A. 
Enloe,  and  also  an  extract  from  President  Cleveland's  message,  first 


44       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

session  Forty-ninth  Congress,  all  to  be  found  on  page  3664  of  the  Con- 
gressional Record. 

The  Coast  Survey  is  an  independent  bureau,  because  it  is  under  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  who  offlcially  knows  nothing  about  hydrog- 
raphy or  geodesy. 

What  does  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  officially  know  about  hydrog- 
raphy or  geodesy? 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  What  does  he  officially  know  about  the  Life- 
Saving  Service? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  That  is  a  question  I  am  not  considering,  and  I  do 
not  think  he  knows  much  about  it. 

Mr.  Enloe.  He  does  not  need  to  have  much  scientific  knowledge 
about  it. 

Mr.  Glasscock.  Kor  is  he  supposed  to  have  in  his  Department  any- 
one who  can  officially  advise  him  on  these  subjects,  consequently  this 
Bureau  runs  itself,  and  this  is  the  one  great  reason  why  the  efforts  of 
Congressmen,  Secretaries  of  the  Navy,  the  Treasury,  and  the  President 
himself  have  so  utterly  failed  to  put  it  under  the  Kavy  Department, 
and  this  ^'independence"  has  been  tjie  cause  of  all  the  scandal,  irregu- 
larities, and  adverse  criticism  that  have  originated  there. 

Now  let  us  look  into  this  independent  record  and  see  what  it  has  been 
and  is  to-day. 

In  the  Democratic  campaign  book  of  1886  you  will  find  on  page  143 
that — 

evideuces  of  irregularity  and  possibilities  of  fraud  in  this  institution  (Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey)  were  so  strong  as  to  warrant  an  official  investigation,  whicli  was 
ordered  by  tbe  President,  and  began  on  the  23d  of  July,  1885,  before  Auditor  Cheno- 
wetli.  The  development  of  fraud  and  corruption  made  by  this  investigation  are 
astounding,  the  more  so  from  the  fact  that  the  Coast  Survey  is  a  Bureau  of  the  Treas- 
ury Department  and  under  immediate  direction  of  Treasury  officials.  The  *' per- 
sonnel'^  of  the  institution  Avas  known  as  the  '' silk-stocking"  gentry.  The  Superin- 
tendent held  a  chair  in  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences,  and  the  scientific  satellites 
of  the  Bureau  included  among  them  products  of  many  of  our  celebrated  institutions 
of  learning. 

Congress  has  made  liberal  approi)riation8  for  this  Bureau,  amounting  to  about 
$1,000,000  annually.  An  investigation  developed  that  about  $100,000  of  this  sum  was 
yearly  diverted  from  a  legitimate  purpose  by  theft  and  careless  administration.  In 
fact,  the  ''scientific  results"  of  the  Coast  Survey  appear  to  have  reached  the  acme 
of  perfection  in  robbery  and  jobbery.  It  was  developed  that  the  chief  of  the  Bureau 
was  the  i)rime  mover  in  consummating  frauds,  and  had  actually  grown  rich  at  public 
expense,  as  well  as  several  of  the  smaller  ''  fry"  who  basked  in  the  sunshine  of  his 
favors. 

Mr.  Money.  Who  was  he? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  Mr.  Hilgard.  J^ow,  this  is  a  fact,  for  I  was  prop- 
erty clerk  there  myself  after  this. 

Hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  worth  of  Government  property  belonging  to  this 
Bureau  was  found  to  be  scattered  broadcast  over  the  land  with  no  intelligible  idea 
of  its  whereabouts.  Scientific  instruments  ordered  and  paid  for  by  the  Survey  were 
ncA^er  delivered,  and  it  was  a  common  thing  to  see  expensive  chronometers,  pur- 
chased with  moneys  appropriated  for  the  Survey,  sported  in  the  pockets  of  the  Super- 
intendent's office  favorites;  the  i)ay  rolls  were  burdened  with  a  list  of  ''pensioners" 
who  never  rendered  a  day's  service  to  the  Government. 

Mr.  Money.  Where  is  that  from? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  From  the  Democratic  campaign  book  of  1886. 

The  Chairman.  You  say  that  comes  from  the  Democratic  campaign 
book? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  Of  1886;  yes,  sir. 

The  Chaieman.  Does  it  purport  to  be  information  given  from  that 
report  of  Auditor  Ohenoweth? 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.       45 

Mr.  Money.  It  must  have  aD  official  base. 

The  Chairman.  And  that  is  what  I  want  to  know,  if  it  has  an  official 
base. 

Mr.  Glasscock.  Yes,  sir;  that  testimony  was  taken  before  Auditor 
Chenoweth,  andtliat  testimony — I  have  never  seen  a  line  of  it,  although 
I  have  tried  hard  and  hard 

The  Chairman.  I  wish  to  suggest- to  the  stenographer  that  he  leave 
that  out  for  the  reason  I  have  all  the  papers  of  that  Chenoweth  matter 
now,  and  hereafter  the  committee  will  examine  it. 

Mr.  Glasscock.  The  testimony  Avill  show  it. 

The  man  who  was  found  with  a  chronometer  in  his  pocket  is  still  in 
the  Coast  Survey  as  chief  of  the  miscellaneous  division,  at  a  salary  of 
$2,200  per  annum,  and  has  charge  of  the  sale  of  all  charts,  and  pur- 
chase of  supplies  for  the  office;  so  that  if  he  is  still  inclined  to  appro- 
priate Government  property  to  his  own  private  use  his  opportunities 
are  all  that  he  could  ask  for. 

Benjamin  A.  Colonna,  second  in  authority  at  the  Coast  Survey  to-day, 
posed  before  the  joint  commission  as  a  great  reformer,  when  he  testified 
(p.  608,  vol.  4)  as  follows : 

The  nature  of  the  services  are  such  that  necessarily  a  very  large  part  of  the 
amount  appropriated  is  expended  for  pay  of  employes,  and  if  we  compare  the  num- 
ber of  men  in  the  normal  force  and  their  aggregate  pay  with  the  amount  to  be 
expended  in  the  execution  of  the  work,  this  is  very  evident.  I  have  frequently  con 
sidered  the  matter,  and  I  know  that  if  the  normal  force  was  scaled  one-third  in  num- 
bers, and  the  office  force  one-tenth,  and  the  aggregate  of  the  appropriationaiiept  at 
the  present  figures,  under  a  new  distribution,  more  work  could  be  done. 

This  statement  was  duly  sworn  to,  and  I  have  no  cause  to  alter  my 
opinion.  But  it  might  be  modified  perhaps  by  substituting  "  costs  '^ 
for  ^^ numbers"  in  the  scaling  of  the  field  and  office  force. 

Q.  That  is,  you  think  it  can^bear  a  reduction  of  30  per  cent  or  more,  and  not  impair 
its  efficiency  ? — A.  I  think  so. 

This  was  in  1885  that  he  proposed  this  reduction  of  30  per  cent  in 
the  ''  costs "  of  these  employes,  and  on  the  17th  of  October,  1887,  we 
find  in  his  annual  report,  p.  114,  that  he  recommends  that  E.  Herge- 
sheimer  (then  getting  a  salary  of  $2,400  per  annum)  should  receive  at 
least  $3,000;  that  the  services  of  H.  G.  Ogden,  chief  of  engraving 
division  (then  getting  $2,000),  are  worth  $3,000;  and  his  chief  clerk 
deserves  better  compensation  than  he  receives,  and  that  Mr.  Braid's 
pay  (then  getting  $1,800)  be  placed  at  $3,000. 

Then  again  it  will  be  found  by  referring  to  Ex.  Doc.  No.'  180,  first 
session,  Fifty-second  Congress,  p.  2,  that  in  1890  the  pay  of  just  one- 
half  of  the  normal  force  was  increased  from  $100  to  $500  each  per 
annum,  on  the  recommendation  of  B.  A.  Colonna,  and  since  he  testified 
before  the  joint  commission  in  1885  that  the  cost  of  this  normal  force 
ought  to  be  decreased  30  per  cent,  nearly  every  member  of  it  have  had 
their  pay  increased  from  10  to  20  per  cent  on  his  recommendation. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  In  the  meantime  had  anything  occurred  in 
the  service  to  make  them  more  valuable? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  On  the  contrary,  the  work  was  nearing  completion 
and  it  ought  to  have  been  scaled  more.  If  it  ought  to  have  been  scaled 
30  per  cent  in  1885,  in  1887  it  ought 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  Was  there  any  extra  work? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  There  was  no  extra  work  that  I  know  of. 

Mr.  Money.  Was  there  any  decrease  in  numbers? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  Yes,  sir;  there  was  in  numbers,  but  not  in  pay. 

The  Chairman.  You  say  there'was  a  decrease  in  the  number? 


46       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

Mr.  Glasscock.  Yes,  sir;  but  whenever  they  die  or  resign,  they 
divide- that  pay  up ;  and  that  too  in  the  face  of  the  fact  that  the  field 
work  is  completed,  and  the  normal  or  field  force  of  the  Coast  Survey  is 
to-day  virtually  out  of  a  job. 

Congress  has  been  very  patient,  but  it  has  occasionally  inquired  when 
the  survey  will  be  completed. 

In  1857  Superintendent  Bache  said  that  it  would  be  completed  within 
fifteen  years. 

!Now  you  heard  something  on  that  the  other  day  from  Prof.  Wood- 
ward when  he  said  it  would  never  be  completed.  Kow,  I  propose  to 
give  you  some  other  authorities. 

Mr.  Money.  I  do  not  think  he  alluded  to  the  geodetic  part  of  it. 

Mr.  Glasscock.  I  think  that  is  the  very  part  he  did  allude  to. 

Mr.  Money.  He  said  as  long  as  the  currents  and  tide  operated  to 
change  the  configuration  of  the  coast  it  would  be  necessary. 

Mr.  Glasscock.  The  testimony  of  Commander  Bartlett  is  that  when 
this  work  on  the  coast  is  done  it  is  done  for  all  time.  You  will  find 
that  in  his  testimony.  Of  course  rivers  and  such  things  as  those  some- 
times change  owing  to  floods. 

Mr.  Enloe.  These  surveys  of  changes  after  the  survey  is  once  made 
are  made  by  naval  officers. 

Mr.  Money.  I  am  not  talking  about  who  will  do  it.  The  fact  is 
there  is  a  necessity  of  making  charts.  Here  is  the  harbor  of  Greytown 
which  has  been  filled  up  by  bars  in  the  last  twenty  years. 

Prof.  Hillgard  testified  before  the  joint  commission  (p.  58,  vol.  4, 
December  5,  1884)  that  it  would  take  about  five  years  yet  to  finish  the 
work  on  the  Atlantic  coast;  and,  on  page  140,  that  the  work  on  the 
Pacific  is  about  three-fifths  done,  and  that  it  will  require  about  nine 
years  at  the  present  rate  of  appropriation.  Oolouna  says,  1885,  in  his 
testimony,  twelve  years. 

All  this  time  has  expired  except  Colonna's,  and  yet  we  find  the  Super- 
intendent of  the  Coast  Survey  coming  to  Congress  and  asking,  and 
getting,  within  a  small  fraction  of  the  amount  of  appropriation  that  he 
received  ten  years  ago. 

Commander  Bartlett,  on  page  76,  testified  before  the  commission  in 

1884  as  follows  on  this  point: 

Now  the  primary  triaugulation  and  the  secondary  triangulation  has  been  com- 
pleted on  the  Atlantic  and  Gulf  coast,  except  about  one-tenth.  That  one-tenth  is  on 
the  Florida  coast  and  on  the  coast  of  Texas,  and  the  Coast  Survey  is  not  attempting 
to  finish  it.  They  are  holding  on  to  that  one-tenth  so  as  to  have  the  work  of  the 
Coast  Survey  continued. 

"  Never  to  be  finished,"  says  Prof.  Woodward. 

Does  this  not  confirm  what  Commander  Bartlett  says  about  the 
one-tenth!  Are  the  dangers  of  an  unsurveyed  coast  to  remain  forever 
unfinished  in  order  to  perpetuate  this  Bureau? 

How  these  Coast  Survey  officials  have  bamboozled  the  Committees 
of  Appropriations  of  both  Houses  of  Congress,  and  Congress  itself,  by 
their  scientific  technicalities  can  easily  be  attested  by  referring  to  the 
appropriation  bills.  Observe  the  deception  they  have  practiced  about 
this. 

Senator  Allison  signed  the  majority  report  of  the  joint  commission  in 

1885  ''  against  transferring."    Here  is  what  he  said  in  1887  ; 

Mr.  Allison.  I  believe  that  this  Coast  Survey,  composed,  as  it  is,  of  scientific  gen- 
tlemen who  have  given  their  lives,  many  of  them,  to  this  service,  has  men  capable 
of  carrying  on  the  operations  of  the  Survey,  and  it  is  perfectly  well  known  to  those 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.       47 

wlio  have  investigated  the  subject  that  if  we  will  give  them  proper  appropriations 
they  will  be  able  to  carry  on  the  field  work  substantially  as  they  have  Ijeen  carried 
on  for  three  or  four  years,  and  the  work  will  be  completed,  with  the  exception  of 
Alaska,  within  from  six  to  seven  years,  certainly  not  exceeding  nine  years. 

Is  it  reasonable  to  suppose  that  he  would  be  willing  to  perpetuate 
this  Bureau  for  all  time! 

In  consequence  of  having  nothing  to  do  this  normal  or  field  force  is 
maintained  to  a  great  extent  in  an  inactive  condition,  and  Superin- 
tendent Thorn,  on  page  284,  Book  of  Estimates,  188G-'87,  speaks  of  the 
winter  months  spent  at  home  by  these  employes  as  a  "period  of  com- 
parative idleness." 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  Can  they  work  during  the  winter  timej  is  there 
not  a  great  deal  of  ice,  snow,  and  inclement  weather? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  Ii^'ot  in  the  Southern  countries. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  They  can  go  to  other  portions  of  the  country 
naturally? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  Oh,  yes;  but  they  can  not  work  up  North. 

Mr.  Money.  Field  work  can  be  done  in  Mississippi,  Texas,  and 
Florida,  and  they  do  a  great  deal  of  it. 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  do  not  think  they  do  much  work  except  in  the  spring 
and  summer. 

The  Chairman.  I  know  that  some  years  ago  they  were  at  work  in 
Florida  during  the  winter. 

Mr.  Glasscock.  The  pay,  however,  never  gets  inactive,  and  one 
man.  drew  a  salary  of  $3,000  i^er  year  for  over  five  years  and  was 
not  at  the  office  but  once  during  that  time,  nor  did  any  work  for 
it,  but  he  did  render  valuable  service  by  appearing  before  the  joint 
commission  in  favor  of  maintaining  the  Coast  Survey  intact. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  Who  was  that?  Q  ' 

Mr.  Glasscock.  Mr.  Pierce,  of  Kew  York.  r<>»^<^ 

The  appropriations  are  made  for  this  force  as  the  field  force,  and 
they  are  supposed  to  do  field  work,  but  out  of  28  assistants  whose 
salaries  range  from  $2,000  to  $4,000  each,  only  about  10  are  engaged 
in  the  field^  and  the  remainder  areutillized  in  the  office  as  chiefs  of  divi- 
sions, and  those  that  can  not  be  supplied  with  a  chiefs  place,  are 
required  to  report  from  day  to  day  with  virtually  no  duty  to  perform, 
except  to  draw  their  salaries. 

Prior  to  1878  there  was  but  one  assistant  employed  in  the  office  as 
chief,  and  chiefs  were  made  by  promotion  for  merit  from  those  skilled 
workmen  employed  in  the  office.  Then,  efficiency  was  stimulated  and 
developed  by  competition;  now,  work  performed  by  skilled  labor  is 
presided  over  and  passed  upon  by  green  surveyors  taken  from  the  field, 
who  know  absolutely  nothing  about  that  kind  of  work. 

One  of  the  first  acts  of  Mr.  Mendenhall  in  1890,  after  he  was 
appointed  Superintendent,  as  will  be  disclosed  by  referring  to  this  Ex. 
Doc.  180,  first  session  Fifty-second  Congress,  and  House  Eeport  No. 
2017,  Fifty-first  Congress,  first  session,  page  25  (both  of  which  he 
wrote  himself),  was  to  convene  a  board  composed  chieflv  of  B.  A. 
Colonna  and  these  chiefs.  This  board  revised  the  estimates  for  the 
first  session  Fifty-first  Congress,  and  increased  their  own  pay  of  all 
(except  two),  from  $100  to  $400  each,  and  further  manipulated  the  bill 
by  decreasing  the  pay  of  some  of  the  workingmen  and  clerks  under 
them  from  $100  to  $565  each,  so  as  to  make  it  conform  with  the  bill  of 
the  previous  Congress. 

All  these  irregularities,  and  many  others  (too  numerous  to  mention), 
arise  from  this  independent  position  of  this  Bureau,  and  are  the  causes 


48       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

that  produce  scandal.  Under  the  Secretary  of  the  ^avy  all  this  could 
be  reformed,  and  this  office  force,  composed,  as  it  is,  of  intelligent 
skilled  laborers,  and  experienced  clerks,  would-  become  a  valuable 
adjunct  to  the  I^avy  Department  to  mature  the  data  brought  in  by 
naval  officers,  and  save  an  annual  expense  to  the  Government  of 
$250,000. 

Why  is  it  that  the  Coast  Survey  officials  are  so  solicitous  about  this 
change  from  one  Department  of  the  Government  to  another  Department 
equally  interested  in  doing  what  is  best  for  the  good  of  the  whole  coun- 
try? Why  is  it  that  they  resist  so  strenuously  every  effort  of  the  Sec- 
retary of  the  Treasury,  who  himself  declares  that  it  should  be 
transferred  to  the  Navy  Department!  It  is  because  they  know  they 
can  befog  and  overwhelm  him  with  scientilicteclinicalities,  and  because 
they  know  they  can  not  deceive  the  Secretary  of  the  Xavy  with  scien- 
tific technicalities,  as  he  is  protected  by  advisers  who  can  fathom  the 
sea,  and  can  also  measure  the  value  of  scientific  technicalities,  and 
compute  what  they  are  worth  in  dollars  and  cents  to  the  country. 

The  Coast  Survey  officials  have  endeavored  to  create  the  impression 
all  over  the  country  that  this  change  is  to  destroy  the  Coast  Survey. 
You  heard  Prof.  Woodward  say  that  colleges  and  scientific  organiza- 
tions have  been  implored  to  forward  x)etitions  (that  owe  then^  origin  to 
the  Coast  Survey)  to  members  of  Congress,  protesting  against  this 
change  because  it  will  work  destruction  to  that  Bureau.  But  such  is 
not  the  case. 

Mr.  B.  A.  Colonna,  if  I  may  be  permitted  to  refer  to  his  testimony 
again,  testifies  on  page  635,  vol.  4,  as  follows: 

Q.  (By  Mr.  Halje.)  I  want  to  ask  you  one  or  two  questions,  Mr.  Colonna.  You  have 
evidently  given  a  great  deal  of  attention  to  the  practical  questions  arising  from  the 
work  of  these  different  surveys.  Now,  I  would  like  for  you  to  state  whether  you 
believe  that  if  these  different  surveys,  viz  (the  Coast  and  Geodetic,  so  far  as  its  land 
work  goes,  and  the  Geological  Survey),  were  put  under  a  common  head  under  the 
same  department  of  the  Government  there  would  be  any  difficulty  in  the  way  of  that 
one  governing  head  so  arranging  the  v^ork  that  there  would  be  not  only  no  clashing 
of  interests,  but  no  duplication  of  work,  and  that  out  of  it  we  would,  in  the  speediest 
and  most  economical  way,  get  complete  surveys  of  the  country? — A.  That  I  believe, 
sir.  If  the  whole  thing  were  subordinated  to  one  head,  no  matter  what  that  head 
might  be,  the  directors  left  at  the  head  of  each  particular  class  of  work  to  operate 
under  that  chief  head,  call  him  a  Secretary,  or  a  Commissioner,  or  whatever  you  please, 
we  would  then  get  the  best  results  for  our  outlay  in  money, 

Q.  Should  you  think  such  an  arrangement  as  I  have  indicated  would  be  of  great 
value  in  this  service  ? — A.  It  would  be  of  great  economy. 

Q.  Well,  of  great  value ;  you  think  they  would  get  along  much  better  than  now,  do 
you? — A.  Yes,  sir;  better  than  now,  and  the  results  would  be  as  valuable  as  they  are 
now.     Of  course  the  value  of  the  work  would  depend  on  the  way  it  was  done. 

They  call  themselves  a  scientific  bureau,  but  the  country  has  never 
been  startled  by  the  announcement  of  any  scientific  result  obtained  by 
the  Bureau,  certainly  not  in  the  last  twenty-five  years.  If  there  is  any 
bureau  under  the  Government  that  can  be  termed  a  scientific  bureau 
it  is  the  Geological  Survey. 

How,  then,  can  the  scientific  work  in  the  Coast  Survey  be  destroyed 
by  uniting  the  two,  especially  when  it  is  shown  conclusively  that 
geodetic  work  is  done  in  the  Geological  Survey  on  a  more  useful  scale 
than  in  the  Coast^  Survey,  and  is  shown  and  illustrated  by  useful  maps 
that  are  eagerly  sought  after  by  the  public,  while  it  is  admitted  by  the 
testimony  of  Mr.  Colonna  '^  that  the  geodetic  work  of  the  Coast  Sur- 
vey is  of  no  use  for  map-making!" 

The  only  perceptible  result  of  this  geodetic  work  appears  in  the 
annual  reports  of  the  Coast  Survey  in  the  shape  of  what  they  term 
sketches,  and  is  about  as  much  use  to  and  as  much  sought  after  by  the 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.       49 

public  as  the  water  of  the  Potomac  would  be  if  Congress  were  to  order 
it  all  bottled  immediately  after  a  flood  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  and  the 
President  of  the  United  States  are  all  on  record,  on  page  3064  of  the 
Congressional  Record,  as  saying  in  effect  tbat  the  transfer  would  secure 
a  service  fully  as  efficient  in  all  respects  as  that  now  existing,  and 
result  in  a  large  saving  of  money  to  the  Government. 

Kow,  here  is  one  other  point  to  which  I  wish  to  call  your  attention, 
which  was  raised  by  Mr.  Woodward,  and  that  is  in  regard  to  the 
bureau  of  weights  and  measures.  I  refer  you  to  page  370  of  volume 
4,  of  Senate  Miscellaneous  Documents.  Now,  sirs,  before  that  investi- 
gation they  had  this  gentleman,  Mr.  Pierce,  who  drew  so  much  unearned 
salary,  and  he  was  at  the  head  of  this  bureau  of  weights  and  meas- 
ures, and  this  is  what  he  says  about  the  weights  and  measures. 

By  Mr.  Lyman  : 

Q.  What  position  do  you  hold  under  the  Government? — A.  I  am  assistant  in  the 
Coast  Survey,  and  have  charge  of  the  office  of  weights  and  measures,  under  the 
Coast  Survey.     I  have  charge  also  of  the  gravimetric  survey. 

Q.  Will  you,  if  you  please,  give  the  commission  a  short  sketch  in  your  own  lan- 
guage of  your  work  as  the  person  in  charge  of  the  office  of  weights  and  measures  ? — 
A.  The  office  of  weights  and  measures  at  present  is  a  very  slight  alfair,  I  am  sorry 
to  say.  It  only  exists  in  law,  because  Congress  many  years  ago  directed  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury  to  supply  the  different  States  ancl  Territories,  etc.,  with  stand- 
ard weiglits  and  measures,  and.  that  provision  was  afterwards  extended  to  the  agri- 
cultural schools,  so  for  that  purpose  it  has  been  necessary  to  have  standards  and 
balances  made  and 'the  States  and  schools  have  been  supplied  with  these  articles. 
We  have  our  office  there  to  keep  up  the  supply  of  these  various  things,  and  we  take 
occasion  to  verify  any  standard  that  is  referred  to  us. 

Now,  I  understand  something  was  said  the  other  day  about  verifying 
the  polariscopes.  I  do  not  know,  but  I  do  not  suppose  that  that  work 
is  very  immense  ? 

Mr.  Money.  That  has  no  reference  to  weights  and  measures? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  I  suppose  it  might,  but,  gentlemen,  that  bureau  can 
stay  right  where  it  is.     It  is  an  insignificant  affair,  anyway. 

The  Chairman.  Is  that  bureau  under  the  control  of  the  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  It  is  under  the  control  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey.    Now,  there  is  another  thing 

Mr.  Enloe.  Before  you  pass  away  from  that^in  discussing  this 
matter  with  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  before  I  offered  the  amend- 
ment in  the  House  and  before  the  introduction  of  this  bill,  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury  suggested  that  in  making  a  division  of  the  work 
that  was  proposed  by  this  bill  that  the  bureau  of  weights  and  meas- 
ures could  very  properly  remain  in  the  Treasury  Department  and  be 
organized  as  a  separate  bureau.  That  is  the  reason  why  this  bill  does 
not  contain  any  provision  for  the  disposal  of  it,  and  it  will  not  be  neces- 
sary, in  order  to  keep  up  that  bureau,  to  retain  possession  of  these 
buildings  over  there,  because  it  has  been  carried  to  the  Treasury  Depart- 
ment and  organized  there  as  a  bureau  of  the  Treasury  Department. 

The  Chairman.  This  bill  does  not  propose  to  transfer  it? 

Mr.  Enloe.  It  leaves  it  with  tiie  Treasury  Department  to  be  organ- 
ized as  a  separate  division  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 

Mr.  Glasscock.  It  only  employs  two  or  three  men.  Of  course  one 
of  the  assistants  of-  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  is  chief  of  that 
bureau,  and  it  has  a  verifier,  a  laborer,  and  a  mechanician.  That  is 
all  it  amounts  to,  and  occasionally  they  have  some  verifying  to  do. 
There  is  no  amount  of  State  work  to  do  unless  it  is  for  some  of  these 
4561 4 


50       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

new  states,  as  all  of  the  old  States  have  had  this  work  done.  They 
have  been  supplied  with  standard  measures.  Kew  Jersey  was  sup- 
plied twice ;  that  was  destroyed  by  fire. 

Now,  gentlemen,  in  conclusion,  I  would  like  to  read,  if  you  have  the 
time  to  hear  me,  it  will  take  five  minutes,  the  five  or  six  reasons  given 
here  in  this  minority  report  why  this  bureau  should  be  transferred. 

First.  The  prime  purpose  of  such  a  survey  is  to  make  maps  to  be  used  by  the 
mariner.  Sailors  best  know  what  is  needed  to  be  sketched  upon  such  a  map;  how 
frequently  the  soundin<^s  should  be  made,  and  how  noted;  how  much  topography 
is  necessary;  what  objects  on  the  shore  should  be  sketched,  and  what  should  be 
omitted.  They  also  understand  better  than  civilians  upon  what  projection  a  map 
should  be  made. 

Second.  By  doing  such  work  upon  their  own  coasts,  naval  ofl&cers  familiarize 
themselves  in  time  of  peace  with  every  bay,  harbor,  inlet,  and  possible  landing 
place  of  the  shores  they  are  to  defend  in  time  of  war. 

Third.  The  work  falls  naturally  within  the  scope  of  their  profession.  By  exercis- 
ing their  faculties  in  useful  activities  they  will  keep  themselves  bright. 

Fourth.  Navy  oflficials  who  feel  reasonably  secure  in  their  positions,  and  whose 
official  life  does  not  depend  ux3on  favor  to  be  acquired  by  assuming  unauthorized 
functions,  will  not  be  so  easily  allured  to  depart  from  the  work  they  are  set  to  do  as 
civilians  often  are  by  the  prospect  of  gaining  ^clat  among  scientists  or  favor  among 
politicians  with  the  hope  of  thus  prolonging  their  official  existence. 

Fifth.  However  it  iliight  have  been  formerly,  the  personnel  of  the  Navy  since  the 
operation  of  our  excellent  Naval  Academy  has  had  full  effect  is  in  capacity  and 
education  fully  qualified  to  conduct  this  Survey.  The  claim  that  young  men  educa- 
ted at  Annapolis  are  not  competent  to  do  geodetic  work  is  not  worthy  of  notice, 
when  coming  from  an  official  who  is  shown  frequently  to  have.put  in  charge  of  tri- 
angulation  parties  professors  who  are  utterly  without  experience  in  the  field. 

It  is  insisted  by  one  of  the  officials  of  the  Coast  and  (^eodetic  Survey  that  one  of 
the  purposes  of  employing  college  professors  here  and  there  to  do  triangulation  is 
to  enable  them  better  to  instruct  the  youth  of  the  land.  If  this  be  true  it  is  another 
glaring  instance  of  departure  from  the  purposes  of  the  law.  But  the  undersigned 
can  see  in  this  application  of  public  moneys  only  an  intent  on  the  part  of  the  Coast 
and  Geodetic  Survey  thus  to  fortify  itself  against  any  attempt  Congress  may  make 
to  correct  abuses  or  retrench  expenditures. 

Sixth.  As  naval  officers  are  already  in  the  pay  of  the  Government,  it  would  be 
more  economical  to  utilize  their  services  than  to  pay  civilian  employes  for  doing  the 
work  of  this  Survey. 

Gentlemen,  I  think  that  is  about  all  I  have  to  say,  unless  you  have 
some  further  questions  to  ask. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  Have  you  any  estimate  of  what  the  increase 
of  force  in  the  Navy  will  be  under  this  transfer? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  What  the  increased  force  would  be  under  the  Navy? 

Mr.  GEISSENHA.INER.  Yes;  what  would  it  necessarily  be? 

Mr.  Glasscock.  There  would  be  no  increased  force  under  the  Navy ; 
the  same  naval  officers  who  are  doing  it  to-day  will  continue  to  do  it. 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  understand  there  will  be  a  reduction  of  force  instead 
of  an  increase. 

The  Chairman.  If  the  committee  does  not  desire  to  hear  Mr.  Enloe 
to  day,  we  will  adjourn  and  hear  him  on  Tuesday  next. 

Thereupon  the  committee  adjourned. 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.       51 


Committee  on  Kaval  Affairs, 

Tuesday,  May  8,  1894. 
The  Committee  on  Naval  Affairs  this  day  met,  Hon.  Amos  J.  Cum- 
mings  in  the  chair. 

The  Chairman.  We  are  here  to-day  to  hear  Prof.  Mendenhall  in 
regard  to  the  bill  proposing  to  transfer  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey 
to  the  Navy  Department  and  to  the  Geological  Survey.  Mr.  Menden- 
hall, we  will  hear  you  now. 

STATEMENT  OF  PROF.  T.  C.  MENDENHALL,  SUPERINTENDENT  OF 
THE  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

Prof.  Mendenhall  then  addressed  the  committee;  he  said: 

Mr.  Chairman  and  gentlemen  of  the  committee:  The  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey,  the  disruption  and  transfer  of  which  is  proposed  by 
this  bill,  is  not  strictly,  and  in  fact  not  approximately,  even  a  scientific 
bureau  in  the  real  sense  of  the  word.  It  is  rather  a  bureau  of  applied 
sciences.  That  is  to  say,  it  is  a  bureau  in  which  the  practical  results 
are  reached  by  and  through  the  application  of  the  best  results  of 
modern  science.  Of  course  it  happens  in  the  execution  of  practical 
work  of  the  character  which  is  undertaken  by  this  Bureau  that  prob- 
lems are  met  with  which  have  not  hitherto  been  solved,  in  which  c.ise 
it  becomes  the  duty  of  the  Bureau  to  solve  those  problems,  and  to  that 
extent  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  has  in  its  history  extended  the 
domain  of  our  knowledge  considerably  along  the  line  of  work  in  which 
it  has  been  engaged.  But  I  wish  to  emi)hasize  the  fact  that  it  is  a 
bureau  of  applied  sciences,  and  that  it  is  not  fair  or  just  to  speak  of  it 
as  a  purely  scientific  bureau;  that  is,  a  bureau  engaged  in  i)ure  scien- 
tific researches,  as  the  scientific  researches  in  which  it  is  engaged  are 
only  incidential  to  its  practical  work.  However,  the  nature  of  its  work 
is  such  that  it  is  not  at  all  surprising  that  there  are  not  a  very  large 
number  of  people  in  the  country  who  understand  the  operations  of  the 
Survey. 

Although  the  results  are  quite  clear  and  have  been,  as  everybody 
knows,  I  think,  very  valuable  and  very  useful,  yet  the  methods  and 
means  by  whicli  those  results  have  been  reached  are  things  that  have 
come  less  prominently  before  the  public,  and,  in  fact,  there  are  few  per- 
sons outside  of  perhaps  a  comparatively  limited  circle  who  have  had  an 
opportunity,  or  by  actual  contact  w^ith  this  work  have  had  oppor- 
tunity, of  knowing  and  understanding  the  methods  and  means  by 
which  these  results  are  reached.  This  Bureau,  which  has  been  com- 
plimented, as  I  presume  you  all  know,  as  being  the  most  perfect  illus- 
tration of  applied  sciences  of  any  Government  bureau  in  the  world, 
and  1  think  justly  so,  therefore  has  labored  under  the  disadvantage 
always  that  it  has  not  been  fully  understood;  it  has  not  been  understood 
as  to  the  methods  and  means  which  are  actually  necessary  in  the  pro- 
duction of  its  results. 

I,  therefore,  Mr.  Chairman,  would  ask  the  kindly  indulgence  of  the 
committee  in  a  presentation  as  brief  as  I  can  give  it,  but  still  I  am 
bound  in  justice  to  do  this  thoroughly,  of  the  methods  which  are 
emj)loyed  by  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  in  the  production  of  these 
results,  and  particularly  of  the  relations  that  the  several  parts  of  this 
work  sustain  to  each  other.  I  may  not  be  able  to  complete  that  in  a 
single  hour,  but  in  consideration  of  the  great  importance  of  this  work 


52  TRANSFER    OF    COAST    AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY. 

of  a  bureau  which  has  existed  to  the  honor  and  credit  of  the  United 
States  for  sixty  or  more  years  I  trust  the  committee  will  not  be  unwill- 
ing to  allow  me  opportunity  to  present  this  side  of  the  case. 

Before  beginning  an  explanation  of  these  methods  I  wish  to  remind 
you  of  a  few  points  historically,  and  I  a\  ill  present  a  very  brief  sketch 
of  the  history  of  this  Bureau,  simply  saying  that  it  was  organized  first 
in  the  year  1807  and  had  its  origin  in  the  intelligence  and  foresight  of 
President  Jefferson,  combined  with  the  wisdom  of  Albert  Gallatin. 

Gallatin  had  come  to  this  country  after  graduating  at  some  of  the 
best  institutions  of  learning  in  Europe,  and  was  one  of  the  first  to 
recognize  the  importance  of  having  a  survey  made  of  the  coast  of  the 
United  States,  and  also  of  the  necessity  of  having  that  survey  carried 
out  on  a  systematic  plan.  At  his  request,  therefore,  the  first  superin- 
tendent of  the  Coast  Survey  was  brought  to  this  country,  one  Fer- 
dinand Hassler,  also  a  Swiss,  being,  I  think,  a  fellow-student  or  class- 
mate of  Gallatii),  at  least  he  was  his  intimate  friend,  and  the  work  of 
making  this  survey  and  the  plan  and  organizing  and  executing  it  was 
put  in  his  hands  by  President  Jefferson  in  execution  of  a  law  passed 
in  1807.  This  work  proceeded,  unfortunately,  very  slowly  during  the 
first  ten  or  twelve  years,  owing  to  two  or  three  causes  which  everybody 
will  at  once  recognize. 

In  the  first  pla  e,  very  shortly  after  the  passage  of  the  bill  war  broke 
out  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain,  and  at  the  time  it  so 
happened  that  the  superintendent,  Mr.  Hassler,  was  in  London,  where 
he  had  been  sent  by  President  Jefferson  for  the  purchase  of  instru- 
ments and  appliances  for  the  execution  of  this  survey,  and  he  was 
quarantined,  so  to  speak,  in  that  country  and  for  several  years  did  not 
return  to  this  country.  The  result  was  therefore  an  interruption  in  the 
early  operations  of  the  Coast  Survey,  so  that  for  one  reason  or  another 
it  was  transferred  to  the  Navy  Department  in  the  year  1818  by  act  of 
Congress  and  this  w^ork  was  taken  out  of  the  hands  of  Mr.  Hassler,  and 
the  plan  of  Mr.  Hassler,  Gallatin,  and  President  Jefferson  in  organizing 
the  work  of  the  survey  of  the  United  States  was  transferred  to  the 
]^avy  Department  in  1818.  It  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  Kavy  from 
that  time  until  ten  or  twelve  years  later,  during  which  time  it  was,  as 
a  very  high  authority  has  stated,  fitfully  and  irregularly  carried  on. 
In  1828  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  in  reply  to  a  communication  from 
the  then  Committee  on  Naval  Affairs,  specially  urged  the  transfer  of 
this  Bureau  to  the  Treasury  Department,  and  at  that  time  made  the 
following  remarks,  which  I  will  read.  The  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  then 
the  Hon.  Samuel  L.  Southard,  said  in  regard  to  this  survey  that  they — 

do  not  furnish  a  satisfactory  survey  of  the  coast  for  the  following  reasons:  (1)  They 
exhibit  detached  parts  unconnected  with  each  other.  (2)  They  are  generally  con- 
fined to  the  shores  and  do  not  extend  sufficiently  far  into  the  ocean.  (3)  Were  many 
of  them  made  by  incompetent  men  with  incompetent  means.  (4)  Thej^  were  gov- 
erned by  no  certain  and  fixed  principles  or  guides  in  ascertaining  the  latitudes  and 
longitudes  of  the  principal  points  and  positions.  (5)  They  do  embrace  the  whole 
coast.  For  these  and  other  reasons  they  are  unsafe,  and  in  many  instances  useless 
and  pernicious. 

Secretary  Southard  furthermore  in  his  report — what  I  have  just  read 
is  in  reply  to  a  communication  from  the  Committee  on  Naval  Affairs — 
but  in  his  report  for  1828  he  further  remarks : 

They  do  not  afford  materials  for  an  accurate  chart  of  the  harbors  and  approaches 
to  them,  and  they  assist  but  little  towards  a  perfect  knowledge  of  our  coast,  which 
can  only  be  acquired  by  that  scientific  survey  of  the  whole,  the  importance  of  which 
I  have  ventured  to  urge  and  would  again  respectfully  suggest. 


TRANSFER    OF    COAST   AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY.  53 

And  lie  added  that — 

These  surveys  with  others,  which  from  time  to  time  have  been  made  under  the 
direction  of  the  Department,  have  to  a  certain  extent  been  useful,  but  they  have 
also  been  very  expensive  in  proportion  to  their  usefulness. 

I  invite  the  attention  of  the  committee  to  this  emx)hasis  of  the  neces- 
sity of  carrying  on  what  you  might  call  a  systematic  survey  of  the 
coast  of  the  United  States  as  distinguished  from  a  survey  of  detached 
portions,  which  proved  to  be  very  objectionable. 

However,  a  retransfer  to  the  Treasury  took  place  in  the  year  1832  in 
response  to  this  action  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  That  is  to  say, 
during  a  period  of  about  fourteen  years  at  that  time  the  Survey  was 
under  the  direction  of  the  Navy  Department.  However,  it  only  remained 
in  the  Treasury  Department  about  two  years,  when  it  was  again  recom- 
mended by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  be  retransferred  to  the  Navy. 
This  was  by  Mr.  Taney,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  under  President 
Jackson,  afterward  Chief  Justice  Taney.  I  am  unable  to  tind  any 
reasons  given  for  this  transfer,  but  the  transfer  was  recommended,  and 
in  response  to  that  recommendation  President  Jackson  transferred  the 
Bureau  back  again  to  the  Navy  Department.  It  had  scarcely  reached 
the  Navy  Department  again  before  Mr.  Woodbury,  who  was  Secretary 
of  the  Navy  when  it  was  transferred  to  the  Navy  Department,  became 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  Mr.  Taney,  as  you  all  know,  on  account  of 
his  action  in  connection  with  the  United  States  Bank  dropped  out  of 
the  secretaryship  of  the  Treasury,  and  Mr.  Woodbury,  the  Secretary  of 
the  Navy,  became  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  as  he  had  had  a  year 
or  two  of  experience  in  connection  with  the  management  of  this  Bureau 
in  tlie  Navy  Department,  he  made  a  recommendation  that  this  be  retrans- 
ferred to  the  Treasury  Department,  so  that  it  was  brought  back  to  the 
Treasury  Department,  and  finally,  in  the  year  1836.  Thus  you  will  see 
it  had  two  periods — one  very  long  one,  and  one  very  short  one — of 
administration  under  the  Navy  Department,  and  in  both  cases  that  it 
came  back  it  came  back  on  a  recommendation  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and 

Mr.  Money.  Would  it  interrupt  you  if  1  ask  a  question  right  there; 
do  I  understand  from  what  you  say  that  it  was  moved  by  Executive 
order  ? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  It  was  moved  by  Executive  order  because 
under  the  first  law  providing  for  the  Coast  Survey  it  directed  that  the 
President  should  be  instructed  to  make  this  survey. 

Mr.  Money.  Then  the  transfers  were  made  under  Executive  orders? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  As  I  understand  it,  it  was  by  Executive  order, 
because  the  President  was  directed  by  the  law  to  make  this  survey, 
audit  was  specifically  provided  it  should  be  under  his  direction. 

Mr.  Randall.  The  last  change  was  made  in  1836  and  it  has  remained 
where  it  is  since  then  ? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  It  has  remained  where  it  is  since  that  time. 

The  Chairman.  Do  I  understand  it  was  transferred  the  first  time 
by  act  of  Congress? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  No,  sir;  I  think  not — yes,  it  was  by  act  of 
Congress  the  first  time,  that  is  to  say  the  first  time  the  organization  of 
the  Survey,  as  planned  by  Jett'erson,  Gallatin,  and  then  by  Supt.  Hass- 
ler,  was  entirely  set  aside  and  a  new  organization  constituted  under 
the  Navy  Department.  The  next  time  it  was  transferred  by  Executive 
order  after  two  years'  existence. 

Now,  in  1843 — I  may  say  the  superintendent,  Mr.  Hassler,  very 
vigorously  prosecuted  this  Survey  during  the  succeeding  years,  but  he 


54       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

died,  I  think,  in  1843,  and  then  it  became  necessary  to  appoint  a  new 
superintendent  and  establish  the  orgaiuzation  of  the  Survey  under 
which  it  has  ever  since  been  conducted,  which  was  accomplished  at 
that  time,  and  it  was  accomplished  by  means  of  a  board,  which  was 
organized  by  President  Tyler,  and  in  order  that  all  sides  of  the  ques- 
tion involved  might  be  represented,  that  board  consisted  of  nine  per- 
sons, four  of  whom  were  Army  officers,  two  of  whom  were  naval  offi- 
cers, and  the  remaining  three  were  civilians. 

Those  9  ijersons  constituted  a  board  which  reorganized  the  Survey.  I 
think  that  the  action  of  this  board  was  before  the  death  of  Supt.  Hass- 
ler,  and  it  was  a  reorganization  under  which  the  work  has  been  con- 
ducted from  that  time  to  this.  That  board  was  in  session  many  weeks 
and  gave  very  careful  consideration  to  the  whole  question.  It  was  in 
the  first  place,  ot  course,  quite  competent  to  give  a  careful  consideration 
of  the  question ;  and,  secondly,  I  would  remind  the  committee  that  it  was 
a  board  organized,  not  in  favor  of  the  civilian  control  of  the  Coast  Sur- 
vey, as  only  3  out  of  9  members  of  the  board  were  civilians,  the  others 
being  officers  of  the  Army  and  Kavy.  The  report  of  that  board,  which 
perhaps  is  quite  well  known  to  the  most  of  you,  was  very  decidedly  and 
positively  in  favor  of  continuing  the  execution  of  the  work  of  the  sur- 
vey of  the  coast  in  accordance  with  the  plan  originally  devised  by  Pres- 
sident  Jefferson  and  Gallatin,  and  to  continue  the  work  of  this  survey 
under  the  control  of  the  Treasury  Department.  Congress,  therefore, 
took  action  to  carry  out  that  recommendation,  and  from  that  time  to 
the  present  the  survey  has  continued  along  those  lines  with  only  such 
modifications  as  have  been  made  from  time  to  time  by  acts  of  Congress, 
one  or  two  of  which  I  shall  refer  to  as  I  go  on. 

In  1848  an  attempt  was  made  to  retransfer  this  Bureau  again  to  the 
Navy  Department,  but  it  was  defeated  by  a  very  large  majority.  This 
was  a  resolution  or  bill  introduced  in  the  House  of  Representatives. 
In  1849  a  bill  was  introduced  in  the  Senate  to  provide  for  the  retransfer 
of  this  Bureau  to  the  Navy  Department,  which  Avas  defeated  also  by  a 
majority  of  more  than  two  to  one  at  that  time. 

Mr.  Enloe.  If  it  w  ill  not  interrupt  you  there,  I  would  like  to  know, 
when  the  authority  was  taken  from  the  President  to  transfer  this 
Bureau  by  an  executive  order  ? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Well,  I  can  not  answer  that  question.  I  think 
it  must  have  been  done  in  the  act  following  the  organization  of  1843. 
That  is  my  judgment;  indeed,  I  could  not  say  positively  that  authority 
does  not  still  exist  to  make  that  transfer,  but  that  would  require  an 
examination  of  the  statutes  on  the  question,  and  that  1  have  not  made, 
but  I  think  there  has  never  been  any  assumption  of  authority,  or  there 
has  never  been  any  suspicion  that  that  authority  exists,  because  of  the 
fact  that  several  attempts  have  been  made  to  bring  this  about  by  act 
of  Congress. 

After  1849  the  next  attempt  to  accomplish  this  was  in  the  year  1882, 
when  a  bill  was  introduced  which  provided  not  only  for  the  transfer  of 
the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  to  the  Navy  Department,  but  it  pro- 
vided also  for  the  transfer  of  the  Life- Saving  Service,  the  Light-House 
Establishment,  the  Bureau  of  Navigation,  and  the  Kevenue  Marine,  but 
in  tact  all  the  bureaus  of  the  Treasury  Department  which  are  in  any 
way  related  to  the  operations  of  commerce  upon  the  seas.  The  history  of 
that  bill  is  probably  well  known  to  many  of  you  gentlemen;  it  did  not 
become  a  law.  Again,  in  1884,  the  question  was  brought  prominently 
forward,  and  I  have  not  been  quite  able  to  know,  but  I  have  suspected, 
the  action  in  1882,  in  connection  with  the  proposed  transfer  of  several 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.       55 

bureaus,  gave  rise  to  the  establishment  in  1884  of  the  joint  commission 
for  the  investigation  of  the  several  scientiftc  bureaus,  a  body  which  is 
well  known  to  all  of  you  and  which  published  a  very  voluminous  and 
full  report;  I  believe  some  selections  have  been  read  of  that  report  to 
this  committee,  and  I  need  not  refer  to  it  at  any  length. 

I  will  say  that  that  joint  committee,  composed  of  members  of  the 
Senate  and  House,  investigated  the  matter  for  two  years,  and  gave  a 
great  deal  of  time  and  study  to  this  question,  and  at  the  end  of  that 
time  the  report  of  the  commission,  as  has  been  presented  to  you,  I  think, 
was  that  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  should  retain  its  autonomy 
as  it  had  during  the  many  previous  years  of  its  history.  As  this  is  a 
public  printed  document,  and  the  evidence  is  accessible  to  everybody, 
I  will  not  refer  at  length  to  anything  in  the  report,  but  I  would  like  to 
emphasize  the  fact  that  a  careful  study  of  the  question,  through  two 
years  of  all  the  relations  of  the  scientific  bureaus  to  each  other^  resulted 
in  this  conclusion. 

The  next  attempt  I  refer  to  was  in  1888,  when  a  resolution  or  bill 
was  introduced  to  disrupt  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  and  transfer 
part  to  the  Geological  Survey  and  part  to  the  Navy,  and  that  also 
failed.  So  you  will  see  the  history  of  this  Survey  up  to  the  present 
time  has  not  been  one  entirely  free  from  ripples  of  inconvenience  aris- 
ing from  attempts  which  have  been  made  to  disrupt  it  by  transferring 
one  bureau  to  another,  but  I  think  the  history  of  the  transfers  that 
have  been  made  constitutes  a  very  strong  evidence  for  maintaining  the 
existing  condition  of  things. 

Now,  without  going  farther  into  historical  mattter,  to  address  myself 
to  the  merits  of  the  question,  I  would  like  to  say  I  think  you  will  all 
agree  with  me  that  such  a  change  as  this  one,  which  upsets  the  tradi- 
tions of  nearly  three-quarters  of  a  century  and  which  destroys  a  bureau 
which  has  produced  work  the  excellence  of  which  has  not  been  rivaled 
anywhere  in  the  world,  that  such  a  change  as  this  should  be  made  in 
response  to  a  strong  demand  from  some  source  or  for  very  good  reasons. 
I  discriminate  between  demand  and  reasons,  because  it  is  quite  true  we 
might  have  a  demand  for  a  change  when  no  particular  good  reason 
exists.  As  to  the  demand,  I  have  not  been  able  myself  to  learn  of  the 
existence  of  any  demand  for  this  change.  There  is  not  a  newspaper  in 
the  country  that  has  referred  to  the  subject,  and  many  have,  that  has 
not  referred  to  it  adversely,  and  which  has  not  been  opposed  to  the  change 
proposed  by  this  bill.  There  is  not  an  institution  of  learning  where 
there  are  men  x)articularly  competent  to  understand  the  merits  of  this 
work  that  has  not  spoken  adversely  to  this  change.  There  is  not  an 
engineering  society  which  has  spoken,  and  many  of  them  have  spoken, 
that  has  not  spoken  adversely  to  this  change. 

The  Geological  Survey  does  not  want  this ;  I  speak  with  the  authority 
of  the  director  of  that  Bureau  in  saying  so.  And  of  all  the  naval  offi- 
cers I  have  spoken  to,  and  I  have  talked  with  a  great  many  in  the  last 
year  or  two  on  this  subject  and  several  in  the  last  few  weeks  in  which 
th  e  matter  has  been  agitated,  I  have  not  found  one  in  favor  of  this  dis- 
ru  ption  of  this  Bureau.  Hence,  I  may  venture  the  assertion  that  as  far 
asi  1  have  been  able  to  determine  I  am  unable  to  find  any  demand  for 
ths  action.  Hence,  action  should  only  be  taken  on  account  of  good 
reasons.  Are  there  any  good  reasons  for  this  transfer  ?  There  may 
have  been  no  demand,  but  still  good  reasons.  I  will,  therefore,  examine 
the  reasons  which  seem  to  be  against  the  passage  of  this  bill.  That  is, 
I  believe  all  the  reasons  are  altogether  on  this  side;  I  have  not  yet 
heard  of  one  single  reason  for  the  transfer  of  this  Bureau  and  the  dis- 


56  TRANfiFER    OF    COAST    AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY. 

ruptioii  as  proposed  that  can  not,  iii  my  judgment,  be  very  fully  and 
completely  answered.  I  will  attempt  to  present  these  reasons  and  then 
I  will  be  happy  to  answer  any  questions  which  any  of  the  committee 
may  wish  to  ask  me  in  regard  to  those  reasons. 

First,  let  me  say  that  the  object  of  the  organization  of  this  Bureau  is 
distinctly  stated  in  the  law  over  and  over  again.  The  object  is  '^  for 
commerce  and  defense  and  to  furnish  i)oints  for  State  surveys."  If  you 
will  examine  the  law  you  will  find  those  three  things  are  distinctly 
brought  out,  and  those  are  the  three  points  for  which  the  Bureau  is  in 
existence;  not  merely  for  commerce,  but  for  defense.  The  very  earliest 
law  upon  the  subject,  and  that  has  been  repeated  continually  since, 
stated  that  these  surveys  must  be  "  for  commerce  and  defense."  I 
emphasize  that  because  some  criticism  has  been  made,  to  which  I  will 
reply  later,  as  to  the  character  of  the  work  of  the  Bureau,  that  it  has 
been  too  refined  and  too  accurate,  and  possibly  that  may  be  true, 
although  I  will  try  to  show  in  that  connection  it  is  not  true  as  far  as 
commerce  is  concerned,  and  certainly  we  have  the  best  of  evidence  to 
show  that  the  work  of  the  Bureau  has  not  been  too  refined  and  too 
accurate  for  puri)oses  of  defense;  hence  I  invite  your  special  attention 
to  the  fact  that  the  law  provides  for  those  things. 

Also  now  for  a  number  of  years,  I  can  not  quite  remember,  perhaps 
twenty  years,  there  has  been  continually  a  provision  in  the  law  pro- 
viding that  the  work  of  the  survey  shall  be  directed  to  furnishing 
points  for  State  surveys,  and  this  we  have  been  trying  to  comply  with 
and  have  done  without  any  very  large  expenditure  of  money.  But 
in  order  chat  the  argument  which  I  wish  to  present  may  be  fully 
understood  I  will  ask  you  to  consider  the  actual  operations  of  the 
Bureau;  that  is,  I  will  go  a  little  into  details  of  the  work  of  this  service, 
which  I  trust  you  will  not  find  uninteresting.  I  waive  for  the  present 
two  of  these  questions — that  is,  I  will  waive  the  question  of  the  pro- 
duction of  a  map  for  purposes  of  defense  and  the  oi)eration  of  furnish- 
ing |)oints  for  State  surveys,  and  I  will  consider  solely  in  the  beginning 
the  production  of  the  chart  for  purposes  of  navigation. 

Let  us  suppose  that  is  the  only  problem  that  is  before  us,  and  then  I 
will  ask  your  attention  to  some  of  the  method — show  this  work  is  done 
and  the  actual  necessity  for  it.  I  will  say  that,  verj^  unfortunately,  the 
work  which  has  been  pushed  most  prominently  before  the  public,  the 
hydrographic;  work  of  the  Bureau — and  I  say  this  because  I  shall  show 
you  proof  by  and  by — is  the  very  simplest  and  the  very  easiest  of  all 
the  work  which  this  Bureau  does.  It  liai^pens  to  be  work  which  appears 
on  the  surface  just  as  the  roof  appears  to  be  tiie  last  part  which  is  put 
on  the  house,  but  it  does  not  by  any  means  represent  the  work  and  the 
great  foundation  upon  which  that  all  rests  is  not  shown  uj)on  the  chart, 
and  sailors  do  not  see  it,  and  the  men  who  use^these  charts  do  not  come 
in  contact  with  the  fact  that  a  very  great  mass  of  work  is  necessary 
before  ever  the  chart  can  be  produced  or  attempted — and  I  hope  to  show 
you  something  of  this  work.  Now,  if  Mr.  Wainwright  will  give  me  one 
of  these  charts  1  will  exhibit  it  to  you.  I  will  ask  your  attention  to  this 
chart,  which  1  have  selected  as  one  covering  a  locality  with  which 
everybody  is  familiar,  and  I  will  try  to  trace  from  it  as  rapidly  as  I  can 
the  methods  resorted  to  in  our  Avork. 

This  chart  covers  Long  Island,  Long  Island  Sound,  a  portion  east 
of  this  point  here,  the  entrance  to  New  York  Harbor,  New  York  City, 
and  a  little  of  the  east  shore  along  there  fillustratingj.  This  is  one  of 
the  sailing  charts.  Now,  the  question  I  want  to  answer  is,  how  do  we 
make  a  chart  of  this  kind?    That  is  the  point.    It  is  perhaps  very  dif- 


TRANSFER    OF    COAST    AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY.  57 

ferent  from  wluit  a  great  many  people  expect.  The  first  operation,  in 
a  logical  order,  and  in  the  practical  order  of  this  case,  is  the  execution 
of  what  we  know  as  tiiangulation,  a  scheme  of  triangulation.  That  is 
the  same  cliart  here,  and  I  have  sketched  out  here  the  actual  figures 
of  triangulation  which  were  executed  and  which  were  absolutely  neces- 
sary for  the  production  of  this  chart.  A  great  deal  has  been  said 
about  triangulation  and  excessive  refinement  which  was  perhaps  not 
necessary,  and  all  that  sort  of  thing.  In  regard  to  that  I  hope  to 
demonstrate  to  everybody  it  is  absolutely  essential.  At  this  jioint 
down  below,  on  Fire  Island,  we  have  the  first  base  line  ever  measured 
in  the  United  States.     That  was  a  base  line  of  Mr.  Hassler. 

He  began  the  work  of  first  developing  thecoastsurvey  of  the  United 
States  from  that,  base,  believing  of  course  Kew  York  Harbor  and  its 
environments  constituted  the  most  important  part  of  the  coast.  They 
made  a  study  of  it  and  began  work  on  the  Fire  Island  base.  This  is 
the  base  line  here  [exhibiting].  A  base  line  is  simply  a  line  of  several 
miles  in  length;  we  have  base  lines  varying  from  a  little  less  than  3 
miles  in  length  to  a  little  more  than  11  miles.  But  a  base  line  is  a  line 
which  is  measured  with  the  utmost  degree  of  precision  possible  to 
modern  devices.  I  would  like  to  say  here  that  the  U.  S.  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey,  as  is  acknowledged  in  Europe  as  it  is  everywhere  1  am 
sure,  has  carried  that  base  line  measurement  to  the  highest  degree  of 
accuracy  possible.  The  base  lines  which  have  been  measured  in  the 
last  two  or  three  years  for  accuracy  exceeds  anything  in  Europe  or  any 
other  country  in  the  world.  Why,  you  may  ask,  is  it  necessary  to  have 
this  done  with  such  a  great  degree  of  refinement"? 

It  is  because,  as  everybody  will  see  from  these  figures,  if  any,  even  a 
very  small  error  was  made  in  the  base  line,  it  becomes  magnified  as  you 
proceed  away,  and  an  error  of  an  inch,  which  we  do  not  permit,  would 
become  many  inches,  and  by  and  by  many  feet  the  farther  you  go  up 
or  down  the  coast,  and  hence  the  necessity  of  having  the  first  line  upon 
which  the  whole  system  rests  of  the  highest  degree  of  precision,  as  has 
long  ago  been  recognized;  and  it  was  for  the  purpose  of  getting  an 
exact  standard  measure  that  Mr.  Hassler  went  to  London  in  1810  or 
1811  to  obtain  a  yard  of  the  highest  degree  of  precision  with  which  this 
base  line  could  be  measured.  I  would  like,  if  you  have  no  objection, 
to  say  a  few  words  in  regard  to  the  degree  of  precision  in  measuring  a 
base  line.  A  base  line  is  measured  by  laying  ofi*  in  the  locality  selected 
a  line  as  nearly  horizontal  as  possible.  It  is  then  measured  usually  by 
using  bars  which  may  be  12,  14,  or  15  feet  long,  the  length  of  which  is 
determined  with  the  highest  degree  of  precision  at  the  office  by  com- 
parison with  the  standard  yard  or  Mieter.  Tliese  bars  are  used  in  pairs 
or  singly  with  microscopes,  and  their  length  laid  off  along  the  line  with 
the  greatest  care. 

Great  attention  is  paid  to  the  question  of  temperature.  Of  course, 
that  enters  into  the  question  of  these  bars  as  other  matters.  They 
vary  with  different  degrees  of  temperature,  but  in  the  end  we  have  a 
result  that  is  accurate  within  a  degree  that  is  apparently  incredible  to 
those  who  are  not  accustomed  to  measurements  of  this  kind.  In  the 
very  earliest  work  we  obtained  results  on  a  base  line  nearly  7  miles 
long,  measured  in  1S47,  and  the  possible  or  probable  error  of  that  line 
was  not  more  than  1  single  inch  in  that  whole  length  of  7  miles,  and 
we  have  progressed  from  that  until  lately,  in  the  Colorado  base  line, 
measured  in  1879,  we  got  it  down  to  seven-tenths  of  an  inch  on  a  base  line 
7  miles  long,  and  on  a  base  line  recently  measured  by  the  most  refined 
process  which  modern  science  and  art  has  produced,  we  have  reduced 


58       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

that  error  to  two-tenths  of  an  inch;  that  is  to  say.  one-fifth  of  an  inch^ 
which  is  a  very  minute  quantity.  We  know  the  length  of  this  base 
line  several  miles  long  within  that  error,  and,  as  I  say,  the  importance 
of  that  is,  if  we  do  not  know  the  length  as  accurately  as  that,  when 
we  proceed  from  that  base  we  magnify  the  error  constantly  in  these 
minor  triangles,  until  it  becomes  entirely  too  great  to  produce  satis- 
factory results.  Having  established  this  base  line,  we  proceed  by  a 
system  of  triaiigulation,  Avhich  I  will  refer  to  briefly  hereafter. 

The  Chairman.  What  is  the  length  of  that  line,  beginning  at  Fire 
Island  ? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  It  is  about  5  miles  long;  I  do  not  know  whether 
I  have  it  here  or  not.  (Examining  papers.)  Eight  and  seven-tenths 
miles  it  is;  I  have  it  exactly. 

Mr.  HuLiCK.  What  is  the  variation! 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  am  not  sure  I  have  that  error  here.  (Exam- 
ining papers.)  It  does  not  seem  to  be  here.  It  would  be,  perhaps,  a 
little  more  than  an  inch, or  something  like  that;  less  than  2  inches  cer- 
tainly. It  is  one  of  the  first  bases  measured  and  we  were  not  exact  as 
we  are  now. 

Xow,  having  established  the  base  line,  we  next  make,  what  is  known 
as  a  reconnoissance,  and  this  is  one  of  the  most  difiicult  operations  we 
have  to  do,  requiring  especial  skill.  It  requires  an  examination  of  the 
whole  country  with  a  view  to  the  selection  of  points  which  are  intervis- 
ible  and  properly  related  to  one  another.  We  can  not  use  an  ordinary 
map  of  the  country,  for  it  would  not  be  accurate  enough  for  this  work, 
nor  would  it  show  the  relative  heights  of  the  several  points. 

This  is  an  imi^ortant  problem,  and  the  man  who  does  this  work  must 
examine  all  the  country,  utilizing  information  from  the  best  maps  avail- 
able, the  best  county  maps  or  whatever  maps  he  may  have,  and  ascend 
the  prominent  elevations,  climb  trees,  and  all  that,  until  he  finally  per- 
fects what  is  called  a  reconnoissance  scheme.  And  having  the  recon- 
noissance scheme  completed,  a  man  with  an  instrument,  a  theodolite, 
goes  into  the  field  and  commences  a  series  of  observations  for  what  we 
call  triangulation  work.  This  work  here  [exhibiting]  we  call  primary 
work.  This  is  a  term  that  has  been  used  a  great  deal,  and  I  want  to  be 
permitted  to  say  that  the  primary  triangulation  work  is  the  largest  tri- 
angulation work  that  it  is  possible  to  make  over  any  area  of  country. 
That  is  to  say,  in  a  very  flat  country,  such  as  we  have  in  the  West  in  the 
transcontinental  line  across  the  Mississippi  Valley,  the  primary  triangu- 
lation lines  are  not  more  than  25  to  30  miles  long,  because  it  is  impos- 
sible to  have  a  longer  line  than  that  without  building  extremely  high 
signal  towers. 

We  have  built  observatory  towers  156  feet  high,  but  in  the  moun- 
tainous country  the  lines  become  very  much  longer,  and  we  always 
make  them  as  long  as  possible,  because  we  get  over  the  country  in  that 
way  much  more  rapidly  by  the  use  of  the  longer  lines  than  we  do  by 
the  shorter  lines.  For  instance,  in  the  great  triangulation  of  the  moun- 
tains west  of  Denver,  the  most  magnificent  system  of  triangulation 
which  has  yet  been  executed  in  the  work  is  the  system  from  Denver 
west  to  the  Pacific  coast  where  we  have  lines,  many  of  them  from  100 
to  140  and  150  miles  long,  and  where  we  have  some  lines  nearly  200 
miles  long,  one  observation  being  211  miles  in  length,  which  is  the 
longest  distance  seen  in  the  world  from  one  point  on  the  earth  to 
another.  We  make  our  lines  as  long  as  possible,  because  we  get  over 
the  ground  faster  and  it  takes  less  time.  The  observer  occupies  this 
station  with  his  theodolite  and  takes  care  of  observations  of  these 
angles,  not  only  of  a  single  series  of  observations,  but  of  many  others. 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.        59 

Sow  I  would  like  to  refer  to  what  I  think  will  be  interesting  to  every- 
body here,  and  that  is  to  the  internal  evidenc^e  of  the  accuracy  of  this 
work.  Sometimes,  when  we  say  that  the  triangulations  of  the  Coast 
and  Geodetic  Survey  are,  as  a  whole,  better  than  any  ever  executed  by 
any  other  country  in  the  world,  it  seems  to  some  people  as  though  we 
were  boasting,  but  I  would  like  to  say  that  this  will  be  admitted  by 
comi)etent  authorities  among  the  geodesists  of  Europe  and  of  India, 
where  such  surveys  have  been  made  on  a  great  scale  covering  the  entire 
area  of  the  country. 

This  claim  is  justly  and  safely  made  on  account  of  the  internal  evi- 
dence of  the  correctness  of  the  work.  It  is  a  great  advantage  that  we 
can  take  the  work  and  turn  it  over  to  anybody  who  can  estimate  the 
value  of  a  thing  of  that  kind.  The  internal  evidence  of  accuracy 
depends  on  a  simple  geometrical  principle  with  which  everybody  is 
acquainted.  That  is  to  say,  in  any  triangle  the  sum  of  all  the  angles  is 
equal  to  two  right  angles,  or  180°.  Take,  for  instance,  this  triangle;  if 
observations  have  been  absolutely  accurate,  barring  a  little  excess 
owing  to  the  curvature  of  the  earth,  the  sum  of  these  three  angles  must 
be  180O. 

But  we  have  never  absolutely  accurate  observations,  and  conse- 
quently the  error  of  closure,  as  it  is  called,  is  a  very  good  measure  of 
the  value  of  work  of  this  class.  If  the  error  is  two  minutes  or  three 
minutes  or  four  minutes,  we  call  that  very  rough  and  very  bad  work; 
that  is,  if  the  sum  of  the  angles  is  greater  or  less  than  180°  by  such 
quantities,  we  would  call  it  very  bad  work,  ^ow,  as  I  say,  there  is  an 
error  of  closure,  and  the  portions  of  our  great  system  of  triangulation 
that  have  been  reduced  and  published  have  been  studied  by  European 
geodesists  as  well  as  our  own,  and  these  errors  have  been  found  to  be, 
on  the  whole,  less  than  that  of  any  piece  of  work  executed  by  any  ether 
country  in  the  world,  so  we  feel  naturally  proud  of  the  accuracy  and 
the  precision  of  that  work. 

Xow,  in  addition  to  what  we  call  the  primary  system,  I  have  also 
put  on  this  map  the  secondary  and  tertiary  triangulations.  which  are 
necessary  to  enable  us  to  execute  typography  and  hydrography.  Sup- 
pose we  have  in  view  a  survey  of  this  water  here  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Stonington.  Here  is  Fire  Island  [illustrating]  and  we  shall  take  in 
the  water  between  that  and  the  mainland  [illustrating],  and  in  order 
to  do  that  we  reduce  the  triangulation  gradually  until  we  get  a  system 
of  very  small  triangles  as  you  see.  The  next  smallest  system  of  trian- 
gulation is  known  as  the  secondary  system,  and  the  next,  or  the  third, 
the  smallest  we  have,  we  call  the  tertiary  system  of  triangulation. 
When  this  is  reached,  we  have  certain  points  along  and  near  the  shore, 
whose  relations  to  other  points  and  to  the  base  line  are  known  or  can 
readily  be  computed. 

But  the  exact  geographical  positions  of  these  must  be  determined. 
Determined  how?  By  the  connection  of  these  triangles  with  the 
primary  base  line,  also  by  determinations  at  various  points  as  indicated 
by  these  dots  of  the  latitude  and  longitude,  to  which  I  will  refer  later 
on.  As  declared  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  at  an  early  period  in 
the  history  of  the  Bureau,  surveys  made  in  detached  fragments  and 
not  properly  connected  with  one  another  or  to  x^riwcipal  points  in  the 
interior,  so  as  to  form  a  complete  whole,  would  result  in  absolute  failure, 
so  a  complete  system  of  primary,  secondary,  and  tertiary  triangulation 
is  necessary.  The  triangulation  alone  is  not  sufficient  to  give  us 
material  for  making  this  chart;  some  other  things  must  be  done. 

A  certain  kind  of  astronomical  work  must  be  done,  which,  as  you 


60       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

can  understand,  in  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  is  restricted  very 
closely  to  the  absolute  necessity  of  the  case.  The  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey  has  never  done  astronomical  work  unless  it  related  absolutely 
and  necessarily  to  the  construction  of  charts.  Astronomical  work  in 
the  Survey  means  the  determination  of  latitude  and  longitude  and 
azimuth ;  that  is  to  say,  we  must  determine  for  a  number  of  points  on 
the  chart — of  course  not  a  great  number,  because  we  connect  these 
points  by  a  system  of  triangulation — but  for  a  certain  number  of  points 
we  must  determine  accurately  the  latitude  and  longitude  and  also  the 
azimuth,  or  the  direction  of  the  lines  which  go  from  this  point,  or  the 
bearing  of  those  lines  with  the  meridian.  The  determination  of  lati- 
tude and  longitude  has  been  perfected  by  the  U.  S.  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey  (I  will  read  you,  later  on,  some  testimony  to  that  effect),  and 
such  men  as  Humboldt,  Schumacher,  the  great  German  scientist,  and 
Arago,  and  European  astronomers  generally  will  support  me  in  the 
assertion  that  this  work  has  been  perfected  by  the  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey. 

The  methods  that  they  use  now,  and  have  for  many  years,  for  the 
determination  of  latitude  and  longitude  are  known  everywhere  as 
the  "  American ''  methods.  We  were  the  first  to  invent  and  apply  the 
electric  telegraph  to  this  work.  The  first  device  for  using  electricity 
in  the  determination  of  latitude  and  kmgitude  I  saw  n^any  years  ago 
in  a  little  garret  room  in  the  city  of  Cincinnati,  where  the  first  chrono- 
gra])h  was  devised  by  Mr.  Mitchell,  an  astronomer  well  known  to  all  of 
you.  The  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  very  quickly  took  advantage  of 
all  the  scientific  investigations  available  in  this  country  in  this  direc- 
tion, and  began  at  once  to  use  electricity  in  the  determination  of  longi- 
tude. It  perhaps  may  not  be  without  interest  to  refer  briefly  to  just 
what  that  means,  and  how  it  is  done.  You  know  the  difference  in 
longitude  between  two  points  means  the  difference  in  time  between  two 
points,  local  time.  If  it  is  known  here  at  this  moment,  east  or  west  of 
here  it  will  be  later  or  earlier  than  it  is  here.  If  we  can  find  out  the 
exact  difference  in  time  between  two  points  Ave  instantly  find  out  the 
difference  in  longitude. 

Now,  the  question  is  to  determine  the  difference  in  time.  This  was 
an  important  problem  previous  to  the  introduction  of  tlie  electric 
method,  and  the  principal  means  we  had  for  its  solution  was  by  the 
use  of  chronometric  methods;  that  is,  by  carrying  a  chronometer  from 
one  part  of  the  country  to  another.  In  like  manner,  when  you  carry  a 
watch  which  is  an  accurate  timekeeper,  in  traveling  from  one  place  to 
another  and  find  the  local  time  at  any  town  does  not  agree  with  your 
watch  you  can  quickly  determine  the  difference  in  longitude  between 
the  town  where  the  watch  was  set  and  those  towns  where  any  differ- 
ence of  time  was  noted.  In  navigation  this  is  a  very  important  matter, 
and  Great  Britain  recognized  that  fact,  and  in  the  latter  part  of  the  last 
century  a  reward  of  £100,000  ($500,000)  was  offered  by  Parliament  for 
the  greatest  improvement  in  the  construction  of  chronometers.  That 
reward  was  earned  by  a  gentleman  who  devised  a  very  simple  method 
for  correcting  errors  in  rate  due  to  variations  in  temperature,  which, 
strange  to  say,  Avas  very  shortly  discarded  by  the  discovery  of  another 
within  a  year  or  two  after  he  received  his  reward. 

The  error  arising  from  variation  of  temperature  is  still  not  perfectly 
eliminated  and  is  to-day  a  serious  difSculty  in  accurate  time-keeping. 
Now,  the  telegraph  came  and  it  became  at  once  possible  to  reproduce 
local  time  at  different  points  almost  instantaneously,  so  that  immedi- 
ately it  was  introduced  into  the  determination  of  longitude.     Suppose 


TRANSFER    OF    COAST    AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY.  61 

we  want  the  difference  in  longitude  between  this  city  and  New  York. 
We  have  a  telegraph  line  between  here  and  New  York  and  we  have 
our  little  observatory  here  and  a  little  transit  instrument  for  observing 
the  stars  and  getting  the  local  time,  and  we  have  the  same  thing  in  New 
York.  Now,  the  observer  at  New  York  touches  a  key,  and  the  instant 
he  touches  that  key  the  fact  is  recorded  in  Washington  on  a  cylinders, 
which  is  covered  with  a  sheet  of  paper — we  have  one  of  the  sheets 
here — and  that  mark  shows  the  instant  at  which  that  signal  is  made  in 
New  York  City. 

Now,  let  us  suppose  when  it  is  precisely  9  o'clock  here  it  is  later  in 
New  York  than  9  by  so  many  seconds,  the  chronograph  record  instantly 
shows  the  difference  in  time.  The  telegraph  method  is  one  which 
enables  us  to  reduce  the  error  to  a  very  sma:l  quantity.  Here  is  one 
of  the  sheets  we  have  showing  the  records  made  [exhibiting  same]. 
It  is  a  very  interesting  record.  This  was  made  a  few  years  ago  on  the 
Hawaiian  Islands,  and  Queen  Liluokalani,  who  had  some  scientific  and 
astronomical  tastes,  visited  the  observatory  there  and  made  an  obser- 
vation of  several  stars,  and  the  records  of  her  observations  are  recorded 
on  this  sheet,  which  she  signed  and  wrote  in  her  own  language  to  the 
effect  that  she  had  observed  the  stars  at  the  observatory  of  the  Coast 
and  Geodetic  Survey.  These  marks  here  show  the  beats  of  the  clock. 
So  accurate  are  these  that  the  error  of  longitude  is  reduced  to  a  few 
hundredths  of  a  second  in  time.  Long  ago  the  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey  determined  the  longitude  between  Europe  and  America  by 
means  of  the  cable  with  great  precision,  and  although  it  has  been  done 
since  by  the  English  across  to  Montreal,  I  very  much  regret  to  say  they 
have  not  yet  published  their  observations.  I  infer  from  what  I  have 
learned  that  their  results  are  not  better  than  those  we  obtained  many 
years  before. 

Latitude  work  is  of  a  similar  degree  of  precision  and  is  executed  Dy 
a  method  known  everywhere  as  the  American  method,  which  was  intro- 
duced by  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey.  We  know  it  as  the  "Talcott 
method,"  because  devised  by  Capt.  Andrew  Talcott;  but  it  is  elsewhere 
known  as  the  ''American  method." 

Besides  work  above  refeiTcd  to  necessary  for  the  construction  of  charts, 
we  must  go  further  before  being  ready  for  hydrographic  work;  for 
Instance,  we  must  have  tidal  observations.  I  have  been  rather  sur- 
prised that  so  little  has  been  said,  in  the  discussion  which  has  taken 
place  on  this  subject  and  the  arguments  which  have  been  introduced  in 
favor  of  the  passage  of  this  bill,  of  the  great  importance  af  tidal  ob- 
servations. 

I  need  not  explain  this  in  detail  to  you,  who  are  accustomed  to  the 
movement  of  the  tides;  but  it  goes  without  saying  that  where  the  tide 
rises  and  falls  several  feet,  as  it  does  on  all  of  our  coasts,  and  in  some 
IDlaces  more  than  20  feet,  it  is  impossible  to  determine  the  depth  of  the 
sea  without  observing  the  tide,  because  the  depth  varies  at  different 
times.  It  is  therefore  necessary  to  have  accurate  observation  of  the 
tide.  There  are  two  classes  of  tidal  observations,  one  of  which  is 
employed  by  all  hydrographic  parties,  including  those  directed  by  naval 
officers  now  detailed  to  the  Coast  Survey.  I  may  as  well  remark 
here,  as  I  have  touched  upon  this  point  for  the  first  time,  that  I  do 
not  Avish,  in  anything  I  shall  say,  to  be  understood  as  disparaging 
in  any  way  the  excellent  performance  of  the  naval  officers  connected 
with  this  work.  It  has  been  my  pleasure  to  be  brought  directly  in  con- 
tact with  them  for  the  past  few  years,  and  many  of  them  I  have  known 
for  a  long  time.    Many  very  excellent  officers  have  devoted  themselves 


62       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

in  tlie  most  unselfish  way  to  tlie  success  of  the  work'of  the  Coast  aud 
Geodetic  Survey  and  have  been  thoroughly  loyal  to  us  under  all  circum- 
stances, having  spoken  in  the  strongest  way  against  the  wisdom  of  buch 
dismemberment  and  consequent  destruction  of  the  Survey  as  is  pro- 
posed ill  this  bill. 

Whatever  I  have  to  say  that  may  appear  to  be  in  any  way  a  criti- 
cism of  their  work  or  rather  to  be  a  criticism  of  the  wisdom  of  throwing 
the  whole  of  this  work  upon  them,  must  be  understood  to  refer  to  the 
conditions  by  which  they  are  surrounded  aud  not  to  them  because 
if  they  w^ere  to  devote  their  lives  to  this  work  without  any  question 
they  would  do  as  well  as  others,  and  I  simply  refer  to  the  conditions 
under  which  the  work  will  necessarily  be  executed  if  this  bill  should 
pass. 

As  I  say,  tidal  observations  must  be  made,  and  they  are  of  two  kinds. 
In  one  method  there  is  employed  a  simple  tide  staff  showing  the  feet 
and  inches,  which  is  erected  at  any  place  where  the  water  rises  and 
falls,  near  a  wharf,  and  the  height  of  the  tide  is  read  by  an  observer  from 
a  convenient  place.  He  makes  a  record  of  these  observations  and  these 
tidal  records  are  kept  in  books  known  as  tidal  books,  and  brought  back 
to  the  tidal  division  of  the  office. 

The  other  kind  of  tidal  work  is  of  the  utmost  importance,  and  is  of  a 
somewhat  different  type — that  is  to  say,  it  is  a  prolonged  observation 
of  the  tide  at  a  given  point.  For  instance,  at  New  York  Harbor  we 
have  maintained  a  tide  gauge  there  for  many  years,  aud  are  still  main- 
taining it  and  shall  continue  to  do  so,  I  trust,  for  many  years  to  come,  as 
it  is  of  great  importance  to  fully  understand  the  tides  of  ]!!Tew  York  Har- 
bor. The  same  thing  has  been  done  at  a  few  other  places.  The  fact  is, 
the  full  period  of  tidal  observations  should  not  be  less  than  19  years  at 
a  single  point.  We  do  not  depend  upon  a  man  to  read  the  stage  of  the 
water  at  various  hours,  but  we  have  a  tide  gauge  which  is  a  self-regis- 
tering apparatus,  making  its  own  records.  We  have  a  man  who  looks 
after  the  clock  and  keeps  it  in  order,  but  this  tide  gauge  itself  keeps  a 
continuous  record  of  the  rise  and  fall  of  the  tide.  This  is  an  actual  sheet 
[exhibiting  same]  from  one  of  the  tide  gauges,  and  it  gives  you  an  idea 
of  the  kind  of  record  that  is  made.  This  is  from  Fort  Hamilton,  Kew 
York  Harbor.  This  curved  line  is  a  line  actually  traced  by  the  i)encil. 
These  vertical  lines  are  hour  lines,  and  this  shows  the  rise  and  fall  of 
the  water  at  Fort  Hamilton.  Of  course  the  rise  and  fall  is  greater  than 
this,  as  this  has  to  be  reduced  in  scale.  This  is  reduced  to  one-ninth  of 
the  real  size.  The  tide  at  Fort  Hamilton  is  nine  times  as  great  as  here 
shown. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Let  me  ask  if  this  record  is  made  by  a  mechanical 
device  1 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Yes,  sir;  it  is  recorded  by  a  mechanical  device 
which  is  constantly  under  inspection.  I  would  like  to  invite  the  attention 
of  those  of  you  w  ho  are  familiar  with  New  York  Harbor  that  in  connec- 
tion with  this  gauge  there  is  an  arc  20  feet  in  diameter,  and  on  that 
arc  are  the  figures  1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  etc.,  of  large  size,  so  that  it  can  be  seen 
across  the  Narrows,  and  any  vessel  going  in  or  out  of  the  harbor  of 
New  York  by  looking  at  that  arc  can  see  the  exact  state  of  the  tide, 
which  is  shown  by  an  index  hand  pointing  always  to  the  figure  show- 
ing the  height  of  "the  tide.  There  is  an  arrow  below  this,  and  as  long 
as  the  tide  is  rising  it  points  up,  and  when  it  begins  to  fall  it  points 
down,  so  that  a  vessel  coming  in  or  going  out  can  see  precisely  what 
is  the  height  of  the  tide  and  whether  the  water  is  rising  or  falling. 
We  have  been  urged  by  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  and  other  maritime 


TRANSFER    OF    COAST    AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY.  63 

organizations  in  New  York  to  reproduce  this  in  the  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce by  means  of  a  small  model.    That  will  be  possible,  I  think. 

The  necessary  work  on  the  reduction  of  these  tidal  tables  requires 
mathematical  talent  of  a  very  high  order.  The  ablest  physicists,  the 
ablest  scholars  that  the  world  has  ever  produced  have  given  a  very 
large  portion  of  their  time  to  the  study  of  tidal  problems.  The  neces- 
sity for  mathematical  and  scientific  attainments  of  the  highest  type  in 
operations  like  those  of  the  Coast  Survey  is  well  illustrated  by  this  tidal 
question. 

Sir  William  Thompson,  now  Lord  Kelvin,  one  of  the  greatest  physi- 
cists of  the  age,  devoted  many  years  to  the  study  of  tidal  problems,  and 
he  evolved  a  machine  for  interpreting  these  curves.  The  complete 
reduction  of  a  record  of  this  kind  is  very  laborious,  and  Sir  William 
Thompson  devised  a  machine  for  doing  this.  One  of  our  own  officers, 
at  one  time  an  employ^  of  the  Ooast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  now  dead, 
Prof.  Ferrell,  invented  a  machine  for  the  same  purpose,  by  which  these 
curves  are  utilized  and  the  state  of  the  tide  predicted. 

The  Chairman.  The  hour  for  the  meeting  of  the  House  has  arrived, 
and  as  the  naval  bill  is  expected  to  come  up  to-day  we  will  continue 
your  hearing  on  Friday  next. 

Thereupon  the  committee  adjourned. 


Committee  on  Nayal  Affairs, 

Friday^  May  18,  1894. 
The  Committee  on  Naval  Affairs  this  day  met,  Hon.  J.  A.  Geissen- 
hainer  in  the  chair. 

The  Chairman.  Gentlemen,  Prof.  Mendenhall  is  with  us  this  morn- 
ing and  will  continue  the  address  which  is  of  so  much  interest  both  to 
him  and  to  us. 


STATEMENT  OF  PROF.  T.  C.  MENDENHALL— Continued. 

Prof.  Mendenhall  then  addressed  the  committee.  He  said : 
Mr.  chairman  and  gentlemen  of  the  committee,  before  beginning 
at  the  point  where  I  left  off  at  the  last  hour  I  was  here  I  wish  to 
call  your  attention  to  a  little  drawing  I  have  had  made  here  in  repre- 
sentation of  the  accuracy  of  the  triangulation  to  which  I  referred  the 
other  day  without  being  able  at  that  time  to  give  any  very  tangible 
example  of  that  accuracy.  This,  however,  will  represent  it,  I  think, 
very  fairly.  This  green  line  on  the  outside,  and  including  this  square 
surface,  represents  the  exact  scale  of  signals  which  was  used  in  this 
particular  case.  It  was  a  piece  of  timber  4  inches  square,  on  the  top  of 
which  at  right  angles  was  an  iron  gas  pipe,  a  section  of  which  is  repre- 
sented here,  the  diameter  being  about  the  same  as  that  of  a  half-dollar. 
These  arrows,  the  ends  of  which  are  drawn  on  this  sheet  of  paper, 
represent  lines  that  are  drawn  from  distant  stations,  the  scale,  as  I 
have  said,  being  in  fact  the  actual  scale,  not  a  reduced  scale.  The 
accuracy  of  the  work  is  shown  by  the  nearness  with  which  these  arrows 
come  to  the  iron  gas-pipe  here  | illustrating].  This  indicates  to  you 
the  great  precision  that  is  reached  in  this  work.  This  line  [illustrating] 
is  from  a  station  about  7  or  8  miles  distant;  here  is  a  line  from  a  sta- 
tion about  25  miles  distant;  and  here  is  one  from  a  station  about  16 


64  TRANSFER    OF    COAST    AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY. 

miles,  and  here  is  one  from  one  about  7  miles,  and  one  from  8,  and 
so  on;  all  of  these  being,  as  1  might  say,  shots  which  were  made  at 
that  slender  iron  pijie  from  distances  varying  from  25  to  6  or  7  miles, 
and  when  these  results  are  all  combined  they  are  found  clustered  around 
the  real  position  of  the  iron  pipe  in  that  way,  and,  as  will  be  seen,  three 
of  them  actually  going  through  it,  and  the  others  coming  within  a  very 
small  distance  of  it.  That  illustrates  there  better  than  i  did  on  a  pre- 
vious occasion  the  degree  of  precision  that  is  actually  reached  and 
which  is  necessary  for  this  class  of  work. 

Mr.  Money.  If  it  will  not  be  any  interruption  to  your  remarks 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  will  be  very  glad  to  answer  any  question. 

Mr.  Money.  You  say  that  precision  is  necessary! 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Yes,  sir. 

Mr.  Money.  I  can  understand  the  value  of  accuracy,  but  as  to  this 
nicety  of  precision,  will  you  please  tell  us  the  necessity  or  utility  of  it? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Of  course  upon  the  degree  of  accuracy  or  pre- 
cision at  any  one  of  those  points — I  referred  to  that  briefly  very  the  other 
day,  and  I  intended  of  course,  to  take  it  up  as  I  go  further  along — 
depends  and  aflects  the  final  relative  precision  of  all  points  widely  sep- 
arated  

"^  Mr.  Money.  I  recollect  the  explanation. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  That  is  to  say,  that  is  only  a  part  of  the  chain; 
this  particular  figure,  or  this  particular  instance,  is  part  of  a  chain 
which  is  being  carried  across  the  continent  to  connect  San  Francisco 
with  the  Atlantic  coast,  and  that  chain  being  more  than  3,000  miles  in 
length  and  going  across  a  mountainous  region,  and  all  that  sort  of  thing, 
of  course,  if  we  were  to  allow  any  error  which  was  at  all  serious  or 
noticeable  to  creep  in  any  part  it  would  become  constantly  magnified. 

Mr.  Money.  I  understand  that;  but  what  I  wanted  to  know  was 
simply  to  bring  out  the  idea  as  to  what  was  the  practical  utility  of 
having  that  degree  of  i)recisioii.  Suppose  it  does  vary,  in  a  distance 
say  of  3,000  miles  a  few  feet  or  yards  ! 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  It  will  vary  a  great  deal  more  than  a  few  feet 
or  yards  if  these  errors  are  kept  up.  Perhaps  I  can  answer  your  ques- 
tion better  by  calling  attention  to  this  fact.  The  question  has  often 
been  raised  why  is  not  the  slender  line  of  coast  triangulation  which  we 
have  run  around  the  Atlantic  coast  sufficient  for  determining  the  rela- 
tive location  of  these  positions,  and  why  is  it  necessary,  as  it  has  been 
deemed  necessary,  to  connect  the  extremities  of  this  slender  line  with 
what  we  call  our  ''oblique  arc,"  which  runs  i)ractically  across  the  east- 
ern part  of  the  continent,  and  the  question  is  asked  w^hy  that  oblique 
arc  is  necessary,  and  why  is  not  the  slender  line  of  triangulation  suffi- 
cient to  satisfy  the  demand?  Now,  the  answer  to  that  is  that  any  line 
of  triangulatioH  of  that  character  must  necessarily  be  suject  to  cumu- 
lative errors,  and  when  you  get  around  to  the  Gulf  coast,  or  even  to 
the  South  Atlantic,  you  will  find  that  when  you  comx)are  your  distances 
there  with  the  distances  as  they  ought  to  be,  as  a  matter  of  fact  you 
will  have  errors  not  of  a  few  feet,  but  of  several  hundred  feet. 

That  we  know  to  be  a  fact,  and  when  we  complete  our  oblique  arc, 
which  will  be  completed  in  one  more  season,  and  Avould  have  been  com- 
pleted in  fact  before  this  if  we  had  not  been  driven  out  last  year  owing 
to  the  absence  of  a  law  in  a  State  in  which  work  was  being  done  to 
protect  the  monuments  of  the  survey.  We  had  those  laws  in  almost 
all  the  States,  but  there  was  no  law  in  this  State  and  some  of  the  land- 
owners objected  to  some  of  the  signals,  and  so  we  had  to  leave,  and  an 
effort  has  been  made  to  have  a  law  passed  by  the  legislature.    Aside 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.        65 

from  that  the  oblique  arc  would  have  beeu  completed,  aod  only  a  few 
days  ago  I  asked  Mr.  Schott,  who  is  chief  of  the  computing  division, 
and  who  keeps  these  things  well  in  mind,  and  he  said  the  error  of  the 
slender  line  of  triangulation  would  unquestionably  be  found  to  be  sev- 
eral hundred  feet;  the  result  of  all  these  positions  located  on  this 
eoast  here  [illustrating]  will  be  found  to  be  several  hundred  feet  out  of 
the  way,  and  these  corrections  will  be  made  when  this  arc  is  completed. 
That  correction  would  be  absolutely  impossible  without  maintaining 
this  high  dei>Tee  of  precision  through  the  whole  work. 

Mr.  SloNEY.  I  did  not  desire  to  interrupt  your  argument,  but  you 
must  not  take  it  for  granted  that  this  committee  is  as  familiar  with 
these  things  as  you  are,  and  occasionally  you  may  think  it  is  impossi- 
ble for  us  to  be  ignorant  of  a  fact  which  is  very  familiar  to  you,when  in 
fact  we  are  absolutely  ignorant  m  regard  to  it. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  It  is  my  object,  and  my  only  object,  to  inform  the 
committee,  and  I  shall  be  only  too  glad  to  have  you  ask  any  questions 
which  may  occur  to  you  at  any  time. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Will  you  tell  the  Committee  what  effect  these  corrections 
will  have  upon  the  safety  of  navigation;  does  it  make  any  difference  in 
the  charts? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Yes,  sir;  it  will  make  a  very  decided  difference. 
Some  of  these  put  on  a  chart  of  a  small  scale,  say  a  small  sailing  chart, 
the  difference  will  not  be  important,  but  when  you  prepare  a  chart 
which  is  larger  then  it  will  be  noticeable ;  but  I  think  everybody  knows 
the  location  of  a  danger  when  it  is  actually  several  hundred  feet  out  of 
the  way  is  a  very  essential  matter  in  navigation,  and  it  would  not  do 
to  allow  locations  of  that  kind.  If  I  may  further  illustrate  this:  A 
vessel  coming  in  from  the  sea  depends  almost  entirely  for  its  position 
upon  astronomical  observations  which  they  have  been  able  to  make 
during  the  last  days  or  weeks  previous  to  sighting  the  shore,  and 
assuming  these  observations  are  of  the  best  quality  possible,  which  of 
course  we  must  assume  and  always  do  assume,  then  the  question  is, 
what  will  be  the  error  in  the  position  of  a  particular  danger  which  this 
vessel  first  meets  with. 

It  is  no  more  safe  to  allow  that  to  go  into  a  chart  200  feet,  300  feet, 
or  400  feet  out  of  the  way  than  to  allow  a  very  much  greater  error  in 
the  case  of  a  vessel  hugging  the  shore  and  able  to  pilot  its  way  by 
objects  which  it  can  i)ick  up  on  shore;  but  vessels  at  sea  do  not  do  that, 
but  are  obliged  to  locate  their  positions  by  actual  latitude  and  longi- 
tude, and  when  a  vessel  comes  in  and  after  the  captain  has  determined 
the  latitude  and  longitude  is  so  and  so  at  this  point,  now^  according  to 
the  chart  there  is  a  danger  to  navigation  at  this  point,  so  if  that  danger 
to  navigation  is  located  several  hundred  feet  out  of  the  way  a  very 
serious  result  might  take  place,  and  such  a  serious  error  as  that  ought 
not  to  exist,  and  it  has  never  been  allowed  to  exist  in  any  foreign 
government.  Everything  is  done  to  prevent  any  errors  of  that  sort 
from  creeping  into  charts  in  orderif  possible  to  prevent  such  accidents. 

Mr.  Enloe.  But  you  say  it  does  exist? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Yes,  we  believe  that  such  errors  exist,  and  they 
must,  and  that  can  not  be  avoided  until  our  triangulation  is  perfected. 
Imight  remark  here  that  I  endeavored  to  present  the  other  day,  and  my 
intent  this  morning  was  to  present,  the  order  of  these  operations 
logically  considered,  but  in  the  actual  practical  working  of  these 
operations  they  have  not  been  taken  up  in  every  instance  in  their 
logical  order,  and  the  reason  of  that  is  of  course  very  plain  when  we 
come  to  examine  the  circumstances.  Just  as  a  man  in  going  out  on  the 
4561 5 


66  TRANSFER    OF    COAfeT    AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY. 

plains  or  iuto  a  new  country  does  not  be^in  to  build  a  stone  foundation 
first,  but  puts  a  roof  on  first,  that  being  the  most  essential  thing  because 
he  must  have  something  to  x>rotect  himself  in  tbat  way;  but  Mr. 
Hassler,  the  first  Superintendent  of  the  Survey,  did  begin  in  the  logical 
order,  as  I  showed  the  other  day  through  this  base  line  beginning  on 
Fire  Island. 

He  continued  that  triangulation  from  that  point,  and  he  very  quickly 
carried  it  on  until  he  reached  New  York  Harbor,  and  he  then  began 
the  toj)Ography  and  hj^drography  with  reference  to  New  York  Harbor, 
because  the  commerce  of  the  nation  demanded  that  that  should  take 
precedence  over  the  logical  order  of  extending  this  triangulation  across 
the  country  and  up  and  dow^n  the  coast  in  order  to  reach  these  points. 
That  is  the  only  reason  the  slender  line  of  triangulation  is  run  first, 
because  it  was  an  absolute  necessity.  Tliat  is  to  say,  it  is  nmch  better 
to  have  charts  even  imi^erfectlj^  i)repared  than  to  have  none  at  all. 
That  is  the  plan  Mr.  Hassler  followed  continually,  really  beginning  in 
the  logical  order  with  the  measurement  of  the  base  line  on  Fire  Island, 
and  all  the  time  planning  for  the  more  complete  system  which  has  been 
consistently  carried  out  from  the  organization  of  the  Survey  under  the 
Tyler  report  in  1813  up  to  the  present  time. 

Mr.  Enloe.  If  it  will  not  disturb  you,  I  would  like  to  know  if  you 
can  not  reach  that  accuracy  before  you  complete  this  transcontinental 
line  to  which  you  have  referred? 

Prof.  Mendeniiall.  We  can  reach  the  accuracy  required  of  any 
particular  combination  when  that  particular  combination  is  completed. 
For  instance,  when  this  oblique  arc  is  completed  that  will  give  us  the 
accuracy  necessary  for  the  combination  of  the  extreme  South  Atlantic, 
including  the  Gulf  coast  and  North  Atlantic  coast,  and  the  relative 
parts  of  that  will  be  brought  together.  The  object  of  the  transcon- 
tinental line  as  far  as  it  relates  to  this  ])articular  thing — it  has  another 
object  which  I  will  take  occasion  to  speak  of  later — but  as  far  as  this 
particular  object  of  the  transcontinental  arc,  it  is  to  tie  together  the 
Atlantic  and  Pacific  coasts,  because  that  is  a  very  great  necessity. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Does  that  object  relate  more  to  geodesy  than  to  naviga- 
tion? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  The  object  of  the  transcontinental  arc  is — the 
word ''geodesy,"  I  would  like  to  say  at  this  point,  does  not  strictly 
apply  to  the  particular  operation ;  it  is  a  word  that  is  very  greatly  mis- 
understood. Every  operation  of  a  survey  is  geodetic  in  its  nature 
whenever  it  assumes  that  the  earth  is  round,  or  rather  that  it  is  not  a 
plane.  That  is  a  geodetic  survey.  Any  kind  of  survey  that  is  made, 
even  on  the  assumption  that  the  earth  is  not  a  plane,  is  a  geodetic 
survey,  and  that  is  all  there  is  to  it.  Now^,  the  ordinary  survey  of  the 
country  surveyor,  and  to  some  extent  Government-land  surveying,  are 
based  on  the  assumption  that  the  earth  is  a  plane,  and,  the  areas  cov- 
ered being  small,  the  rotundity  of  the  earth  is  not  noticed;  but  even 
in  our  land  survey  its  importance  was  recognized  by  President  Jeffer- 
son, and  he  was  desirous  of  passing  laws  regulating  that  survey,  in 
order  to  have  what  is  now  called  a  "geodetic  survey."  The  history  of 
the  organization  of  the  present  line  surveying  shows  that  at  that  time 
he  was  unable  to  do  so,  and  the  consequence  is  that  the  line  surveys 
to-day  contain  many  marked  contradictions  and  irregularities  with 
regard  to  that  fact. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Am  I  to  understand  from  that  the  transcontinental  arc 
survey  relates  particularly  to  the  land  surveys 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  If  you  will  pardon  me,  I  will  complete  the 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.        67 

answer  to  the  question  whicli  you  asked  me  a  moment  ago,  and  that 
will  perhaps  be  best.  The  object  now  of  the  transcontinental  arc — 
this  is  leading  me  to  state  in  regard  to  which  I  wished  to  state  further 
along  in  order,  but  perhaps  it  will  be  well  to  take  it  up — the  object  of 
the  transcontinental  arc  is  to  tie  together  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific 
coasts  for  the  i)arpose  of  construction  of  charts  for  the  navigator, 
because  we  must  know  these  relative  positions  with  great  accuracy, 
which  can  not  be  obtained  in  any  other  way  tlrm  that,  and  this  tying 
together  of  the  continent  must  be  made  between  one  part  of  the  conti- 
nent and  another,  and  it  must  be  made  between  one  country  and  another. 
You  are  probably  aware  of  the  fact  that  we  have  tied  our  country  to 
Europe  by  means  of  the  cable  in  determining  longitude.  However,  this 
is  not  the  only  object  of  the  transcontinental  arc.  The  law  of  Con- 
gress has  long  provided,  besides  the  function  of  the  Coast  Survey  in 
providing  charts  for  the  navigator,  as  I  referred  to  the  other  day,  one 
of  its  functions  shall  be  to  furnish  points  to  State  surveyors,  and  that 
is  one  of  the  most  essential  and  valuable  features  of  the  transconti- 
nental arc  that  is  now  being  extended.  Every  State  in  the  country 
will  eventually,  must  eventually,  prepare  an  accurate  map.  In  my 
judgment,  that  should  be  done  by  State  authority  and  not  by  the  Gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Will  you  please  tell  us  how  many  States  have  applied 
for  those  points  ? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Perhaps  a  dozen  or  more ;  I  can  not  give  you  now 
the  number  exactly,  but  if  I  am  allowed  to  continue  in  the  line  on  which 
I  am  I  would  like  to  explain  the  value  of  that.  As  I  say,  every  State 
must  eventually  construct  a  map,  and  as  I  said  in  my  judgment  it  is 
best  to  be  done  by  an  appropriation  of  its  own  money  and  not  by  the 
National  Government,  but  the  National  Government  must  do  what  the 
States  can  not  do ;  and  that  is  the  States  can  not  carry  on  this  system 
of  triangulation  which  w^ould  enable  them  to  relate  themselves  to  each 
other.  If  you  make  an  independent  map  of  the  State  of  Ohio  and  of 
the  State  of  Indiana  and  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  such  maps  made  inde- 
pendently can  not  be  fitted  into  each  other;  they  will  not  properly  join 
each  other.  There  will  be  and  there  has  been  an  inaccuracy,  and  if  I 
should  take  up  the  time  of  the  committee  to  consider  it,  I  could  point  out 
many  maps  made  in  such  a  way. 

I  could  cite  numerous  examples  of  boundary  lines  run  in  this  way  by 
independent  action  which  have  been  found  many  miles  out  of  the  way. 
Within  the  last  three  years  the  Coast  Survey  has  been  called  upon  to 
settle  disputed  boundary  lines,  and  they  still  exist  all  over  the  United 
States.  There  are  some  disputes  in  regard  to  boundary  lines  that  have 
been  in  existence  a  hundred  years  or  more  which  have  not  been  settled. 
One  important  one  was  settled  in  the  last  year  by  the  work  of  the  Coast 
and  Geodetic  Survey  between  the  State  of  Delaware  and  the  State  of 
Pennsylvania,  a  controversy  existing  ever  since  the  days  of  Lord  Balti- 
more and  William  Penn,  which  was  finally  settled  by  the  application 
of  such  methods  as  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  uses  and  no  one 
else  uses.  These  questions  can  be  forever  and  definitely  settled,  s  o  that 
no  future  dispute  can  arise,  when  this  transcontinental  line  is  com- 
J)leted,-  and  1  may  say  that  it  is  now  nearly  completed,  there  being  but 
a  short  break  between  the  two  links,  one  of  which  came  from  the  west 
toward  the  east  and  the  other  of  which  started  from  the  east  going  to 
the  west,  and  the  States  through  which  it  passes  will  be  able  to  hang 
their  own  maps  on  it.    They  have  recognized  that  long  ago. 

We  are  carrying  on  now  in  several  States  of  the  Union  these  opera  - 


68       TRANSP^ER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

tions  and  furnishing  points  to  the  State  surveyors  to  be  arranged  when- 
ever we  can  establish  the  transcontinental  line  so  as  to  attach  each  to 
the  general  system.  I  uiight  mention  work  which  is  going  on  in  the 
State  of  Minnesota,  where  the  State  itself  has  made  an  appropriation 
for  the  topography  of  this  work,  and  that  is  right.  My  own  judgment 
is  that  the  IJnited  States  Government  ought  not  to  pay  for  interior 
topography,  and  it  never  has  been  the  object  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey  to  make  this  interior  topographical  work,  and  that  has  been 
greatly  misunderstood  by  many  people.  It  has  been  thought  that  we 
are  ambitious  to  go  into  details  of  an  interior  topographical  survey  of 
the  whole  country.  That  is  not  the  case.  The  Coast  Survey  as  con- 
stituted can  do  for  the  United  States  what  no  State  alone  can  do,  that 
is,  to  carry  out  this  scheme  of  triangulation,  and  that  is  one  of  the  most 
vital  and  most  important  features  of  the  work. 

E^ow,  I  have  been  led  into  some  remarks  upon  triangulation  which,  if 
they  had  come  regularly,  I  am  glad  to  say  I  would  have  wanted  to 
take  up  a  little  later  on  the  work  on  this  character  that  has  been  done 
by  other  nations  of  the  world,  and  you  will  there  see  that  the  United 
States  has  not  done  one-fifth  of  this  character  of  work  that  has  been 
done  by  European  nations.  Take  India,  which  is  a  poor  country,  and 
is  of  very  large  area,  yet  the  whole  surface  of  it  is  covered  by  a  network 
of  triangulation  of  the  very  highest  degree  of  precision.  It  is  considered 
a  necessary  detail  of  a  survey  of  the  country.  England,  Germany, 
France,  Italy,  and  all  of  those  countries,  all  European  countries  prac- 
tically, have  been  covered  in  this  way.  I  have  some  maps  of  those 
countries  showing  that  fact  which  I  will  at  some  later  time  show  you, 
in  order  that  you  may  see  that  the  criticism  which  has  been  made 
against  this  work  is  not  well  taken.  We  have  a  single  slender  line  of 
triangulation  across  the  country,  an  oblique  arc,  that  is  necessary 
for  the  correction  of  the  shore  line,  and  that  is  all  we  have  done.  I 
must  say  honestly,  because  I  wish  to  be  honest  in  all  these  matters,  it 
is  by  no  means  all  that  ought  to  have  been  done.  The  U.  S.  Govern- 
ment must  eventually  extend  this  triangulation  extensively.  This  is  a 
subject  which  must  some  time  or  other  be  taken  up  again 

Mr.  Enloe.  If  it  will  not  interrupt  you  at  that  point,  before  getting 
away  from  the  subject  of  the  foreign  surveys,  I  would  like  to  know 
whether  that  is  done  through  the  coast  survey  in  the  foreign  countries 
or  through  the  engineer  officers  of  the  army  1 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Mr.  Chairman,  may  I  ask  to  be  permitted  to  take 
up  this  question  rather  systematically  in  the  way  in  which  I  started, 
because  £  can  not  answer  questions  so  satisfactorily  as  I  can  if  I  am 
allowed  to  take  up  the  subject  in  its  regular  course"? 

Mr.  Money.  I  suggest  the  propriety  of  allowing  Prof.  Mendenhall  to 
go  on  in  the  line  which  he  desires,  and  any  gentleman  wishing  to  inter- 
rogate him  upon  any  point  can  make  a  note  of  it  and  ask  those  ques- 
tions at  the  conclusion  of  his  remarks. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  will  be  very  glad  to  be  interrupted  with  ques- 
tions on  any  topic  bearing  on  the  question  which  I  have  in  hand ;  I  do 
not  object  to  being  interrupted  by  a  question  of  that  kind,  but  I  have 
been  led,  as  you  see,  to  the  consideration  of  subjects  which  come  later 
along  and  which  can  not,  of  course,  be  brought  in  at  this  i)oint  as  intel- 
ligently as 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  want  to  beg  the  pardon  of  the  committee,  but  I  have 
not  asked  questions  on  a  subject  about  which  the  gentleman  was  not 
talking;  I  thought  I  was  asking  questions  x)ertinent  to  the  matter  under 
discussion. 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.        69 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  All  of  these  questions  suggested  as  to  the  way 
in  which  the  work  is  done  abroad  I  have  dovtn  in  my  notes  and  I  wish 
to  take  it  up  at  the  proper  time,  but  I  think  it  will  be  impossible  for  me 
to  present  it  intelligently  and  clearly  until  the  present  plan  of  the  work 
and  the  relations  which  each  part  sustains  to  the  other  is  explained,  so 
if  you  will  permit  me  I  will  go  on  in  that  way. 

Leaving  then  the  subject  of  triangulation  and  astronomical  work 
which  we  do  and  of  which  I  spoke  at  the  last  session  of  this  committee, 
I  had  then  taken  up  the  matter  of  tidal  observations  and  explained  to 
the  committee  some  of  the  work  of  the  tide  registers,  showing  the  way 
in  which  the  tides  were  recorded.  I  wish  to  say  briefly  farther  with 
regard  to  that,  that  when  these  tidal  curves  which  I  exhibited  to  you 
the  last  time  are  studied  the  outcome  of  this  study  is  the  means  of 
forecasting  or  predicting  the  tide,  Kow,  this  is  one  of  the  most  imi)or- 
tant  operations  in  which  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  has  ever  been 
engaged.  I  am  sure  no  one  who  is  familiar  with  navigation  at  all  will 
doubt  that  a  knowledge  of  the  state  of  the  tide  at  any  time  is  of  the 
greatest  importance  to  the  navigator.  Of  course,  if  one  is  on  shore  he 
can  go  and  measure  the  state  of  the  tide  by  observation,  but  the  navi- 
gator is  not  on  shore,  he  is  afloat,  and  he  must  know  if  he  wants  to  enter 
a  harbor  safely,  and  if  that  harbor  has  not  very  much  more  water  than 
his  vessel  carries,  he  must  know  the  state  of  the  tide. 

For  instance — we  have  many  harbors — take  Charleston  Harbor,  where 
just  now  the  bar  carries  17  feet  at  low  water  and  at  high  water  it 
stands  either  22  or  23  feet;  therefore  a  vessel  drawing  22  feet  of  water 
has  been  able  to  go  safely  into  Charleston  Harbor,  but  it  can  only  go  in 
there  by  taking  advantage  of  the  precise  moment  when  the  tide  is  at 
its  highest  i)oint.  Therefore,  it  is  necessary  for  us  to  predict  and  pub- 
lish a  tidal  almanac,  and  I  have  one  of  those  tidal  almanacs  here  which 
is  one  we  issued  some  months  ago  for  the  year  of  1895.  We  issue,  of 
course,  for  a  year  or  two  in  advance,  so  that  they  may  be  distributed  to 
vessels  wherever  they  hap])en  to  be.  By  the  use  of  this  the  navigator 
can  tell  at  any  time  of  the  year  at  just  what  hour  there  is  high  water 
in  the  ports  of  the  United  States.  H  he  wishes  to  know  what  the  state 
of  the  water  will  be  at  any  harbor,  he  looks  at  the  almanacs  and  discov- 
ers when  it  Avill  be  high  water  and  when  low  water,  and  thus  he  can 
control  his  entering  the  harbor  in  that  way.  It  is  neediest^,  I  think,  for 
me  to  remark  that  such  a  book  as  that  predicting  the  tides  must  be  the 
means  of  greatly  facilitating  the  commerce  and  thereby  adding  many 
millions  ot  dollars  to  it  which  would  be  lost  if  they  were  not  able  to 
make  these  harbors. 

The  production  of  that  book  requires  the  exercise  of  mathematical 
talent  of  a  high  order  and  requires  a  study  of  the  subject  of  tidal  prob- 
lems for  years,  and  we  have  at  work  on  this  book  all  the  time  men  Avho 
are  graduates  of  our  best  technical  engineering  colleges  and  universi- 
ties of  the  country  and  who  are  especially  remarkable  for  their  mathe- 
matical attainments,  and  they  are  all  the  time  employed  in  that  work. 
The  old  method  of  computing  or  predicting  the  tide  by  computation 
was  a  very  laborious  method,  so  that  we  were  very  much  gratified  a  few 
years  ago  when  one  of  the  officers  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey, 
who  is  now  dead.  Prof.  Ferrell,  devised  a  machine  for  gauging  the  tide. 
There  are  several  constants  obtained  from  these  curves,  and  these  con- 
stants are  set  on  the  machine  and  by  turning  a  crank  (it  is  a  little  more 
than  that),  certain  other  constants  are  made  to  appear  by  means  of 
which  the  prediction  is  made;  but  of  course  the  existence  of  this 
machine  does  not  by  any  means  make  it  unnecessary  to  have  connected 


70       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

with  this  tidal  work  men  of  long  experience  and  understanding  and  of 
a  high  order  of  mathematical  attainments. 

The  forecasting  of  the  tides  is  much  more  difficult  thaij  the  forecast- 
ing of  eclipses  by  astronomy.  We  know  much  less  about  the  real  opera- 
tion of  the  tides  than  we  do  about  the  heavenly  bodies,  and  therefore 
that  point  is  to  be  considered  in  considering  the  importance  of  this 
work  which  we  are  doing.  The  tides,  while  due,  of  course,  in  general  to 
the  influences  of  the  sun  and  moon,  yet  they  are  modified  so  much  by 
the  conformation  of  the  coast  and  by  the  varying  ijositions  of  the  sun 
and  moon  that  they  are  constantly  varying  month  by  month  and  year 
by  year,  but  by  means  of  very  careful  study  that  has  been  given  to  this 
subject  we  are  able  to  publish  this  almanac  and  jiredict  the  tides  a  long 
time  in  advance. 

Another  very  important  operation  in  which  we  have  been  engaged 
for  many  years,  and  which  is  of  most  vital  imi)ortance  to  navigators, 
not  relating  especially  to  geodetic  work,  is  the  magnetic  work  of  the 
survey.  Almost  all  sailing  to-day  is  done  by  the  compass.  It  is  true 
that  the  captain  of  a  ship  will  correct  his  compass  as  oftec  as  he  can 
get  an  astronomical  observation,  but  there  are  many  days  at  sea  when 
he  can  not.  Tliere  are  very  few  coasters  who  are  able  to  take  an  astro- 
nomical observation  with  any  particular  accuracy  at  sea,  so  they  must 
depend  for  position  upon  the  compass.  Now,  the  compass  is  also  a  very 
erratic  standard,  almost  if  not  quite  as  erratic  as  the  tide,  and  the 
old  saying  in  relation  to  truthfulness,  ''  as  true  as  the  needle  to  the 
pole,"  is  a  very  mistaken  one,  because  the  needle  is  about  as  false  to 
the  pole  as  it  very  well  can  be. 

In  the  first  place,  at  only  very  few  points  on  the  surface  of  the  earth 
does  the  needle  point  to  the  ISorth  Polej  and,  secondly,  it  does  not 
remain  constantly  pointing  in  any  one  direction  for  any  length  of  time. 
It  is  constantly  varying.  Therefore  it  has  been  important  to  study 
this  question,  and  for  fifty  years  or  more  the  study  of  magnetism  has 
been  one  of  the  vital  features  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  and 
we  have  probably  to-day  in  our  s  Tvice  the  best  expert  knowledge  on 
the  subject  of  magnetics  that  is  available  anywhere.  The  result  of 
that  has  been  tlie  production  of  a  series  of  magnetic  maps  which 
enable  us  to  show  and  enable  the  mariner  to  see  wherever  he  may  be 
what  the  variation  or  declination  of  the  needle  is  at  that  particular 
point.  For  instance,  at  this  place  [illustrating  on  map]  the  needle  does 
not  point  north,  but  it  i)oints  about  5°  west  of  north.  If  you  go  east  it 
increases  and  if  you  go  west  it  diminishes  until  you  get  to  a  certain 
line  through  the  United  States  where  the  variation  at  a  given  tinie  will 
be  zero. 

Along  that  line  [illustrating]  the  needle  points  due  north.  If  you  go 
west  of  that  line  it  varies,  and  if  you  go  east  of  that  line  it  varies. 
Extending  it  to  the  sea  this  line  hero  becomes  of  the  greatest  impor- 
tance to  the  navigator.  This  chart  which  I  have  here  is  one  of  the  charts 
published  in  the  year  1885.  These  lines  here  show  the  variation  of  the 
needle  at  different  places.  [Exhibiting  same].  These  lines  run  in  a 
crooked  way.  For  instance,  this  heavy  line  starting  where  my  finger 
is,  and  running  in  that  crooked  way  down  here,  in  1885  was  the  line  of 
no  variation.  That  is,  any.  man  living  on  that  line,  wherever  he  was, 
his  needle  would  jjoint  to  the  north ^  and  if  he  lived  on  this  line  here 
[illustrating],  wherever  he  Avas,  the  needle  would  point  5^  west  of  north 
or  10°  here,  or  15°  here,  or  20°  here,  and  so  on,  as  you  will  see  on  the 
map.  So  you  see  the  variation  is  of  no  small  quantity  and  it  is  not  a 
small  thing. 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.        71 

Now,  anyone  can  appreciate  the  value  of  that  information  to  the 
land.  Surveyors  and  engineers  everywhere  over  the  country  are  con- 
stantly applying  to  us  for  these  charts  and  for  these  facts  and  by  them 
they  are  able  to  solve  problems  of  the  utmost  imi^ortance  in  the  older 
States  of  the  Union  by  being  able  not  only  to  predict  forward  as  we  are 
by  our  knowledge  of  the  magnetic  problem,  but  to  predict  back- 
wards, being  thus  enabled  to  tell  what  the  variation  of  the  needle  was 
in  the  early  days  before  itwas  recognized  or  known  by  surveyors,  and 
thus  we  can  straighten  out  surveys  made  one  hundred  and  one  hun- 
dred and  lifty  years  ago.  We  have  settled  a  great  many  cases  of  prop- 
erty disputes,  and  boundary  line  disputes,  and  that  sort  of  thing  by 
being  able  to  go  back  to  the  year  1770  and  showing  at  that  particular 
point  the  needle  must  have  been  so  many  degrees  east  or  west  of  the 
meridian.  That  has  only  been  i)ossible  by  a  study  of  the  laws  of  mag- 
netic forces.  This  is  not  simply  from  observations,  but  of  course  we 
make  many  observations,  many  thousands  of  them  scattered  over  the 
country,  but  it  requires  ability  of  a  high  order  and  long-continued 
application  to  the  study  of  this  one  subject  in  order  that  we  should  be 
able  to  solve  the  problems  in  the  way  we  have. 

Mr.  Enloe.  If  it  will  not  interrupt  you,  I  would  like  to  ask  if  this 
variation  is  not  in  obedience  to  a  regular  law  or  whether  it  is  erratic? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  am  just  coming  to  that  fact.  This  is  a  chart 
of  1890.  Now,  if  I  should  compare  the  chart  of  1885  with  the  chart  of 
1890,  which  you  can  do,  you  will  find  the  lines  of  1890  are  diiferent 
from  those  of  1885,  and  this  makes  it  necessary  for  us  to  publish  the 
map,  which  we  do  about  once  in  five  years ;  and  in  a  rough  way  I  will 
say  these  lines  swing  jjerhaps  25  miles  in  five  years 

Mr.  Enloe.  Always  in  the  same  direction  ? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  will  come  to  that.  This  swing  has  been 
studied  for  many  years.  In  various  parts  of  the  world  they  have  been 
studied  one  hundred  and  fifty  years,  perhaps  a  little  longer  than  that. 
That  was  known  in  Europe  probably  very  soon  after  the  discovery  of  the 
magnetic  needle,  which  was  about  1000  or  1200.  The  fact  that  it  varied 
in  error  in  different  x)laces  on  the  face  of  the  earth  was  first  discovered  by 
Columbus  on  his  voyage  of  discovery,  as  you  doubtless  remember.  That 
was  the  occasion  of  one  of  the  critical  i)eriods  of  the  history  of  that 
voyage  when  he  discovered  the  needle  did  not  point  astronomically  as 
it  pointed  when  he  left.  He  made  the  discovery  that  in  different  parts 
of  the  world  the  needle  did  not  point  in  the  same  direction.  At  a  later 
period  it  was  found  that  the  variation  was  a  variable  quantity  and  that 
these  lines  of  variation  were  constantly  moving  or  swinging  backward 
and  forward.  Now,  to  answer  the  direct  question.  We  do  not  know 
the  law  of  movements  of  these  lines ;  although  we  have  been  studying 
them  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  or  more,  yet  it  is  an  unsolved  problem. 
It  will  not  aiwaysbe  an  unsolved  problem ;  we  shall  solve  it  sometime,  but 
the  best  we  can  do  now  is  to  trace  the  course  of  these  changes,  and  our 
j)redictions  are  based  upon  what  the  variation  of  the  needle  will  proba- 
bly be,  backward  or  forward,  and  a  continuance  of  the  same  law  of 
variation  which  the  needle  has  during  the  present  time. 

The  observations  in  Paris  seem  to  show  that  there  is  a  great  cycle  of 
these  variations  and  the  cycle  seems  to  vary  in  diilerent  parts  of  the 
world.  The  observations  in  London  show  a  cycle  in  some  perhaps  one 
hundred  and  fifiy  or  two  hundred  and  fifty  years.  The  observations  in 
this  country  show  a  continuous  movement,  but  yet  not  of  a  cyclical 
character;  that  is  to  say,  we  know  it  is  going  on,  and  we  know  tolerably 
well  the  lines  it  is  following.    It  is  like  following  the  curves  of  a  rail- 


72  TRANSFER    OF    COAST    AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY. 

way;  you  see  it  bending  around  a  curve,  but  you  do  not  know  if  you 
go  on  that  road  and  travel  you  are  coming  back  to  tlie  same  point,  and 
that  is  the  trouble  with  this  problem. 

Now,  the  great  importance  of  this  magnetic  work  has  been  empha- 
sized by,  and  I  could  get  the  testimony  of,  thousands  and  thousands  of 
engineers.  As  important  as  this  is  on  shore,  how  much  more  impor- 
tant it  is  on  the  sea,  because  I  say  when  a  navigator  is  afloat  he  is 
obliged  almost  invariaby  to  sail  by  comi)ass. 

Now,  if  he  goes  from  one  part  of  the  sea  to  the  other,  the  variation 
of  the  needle  is  constantly  changing,  and  he  must  know  this  variation 
wherever  it  is.  Here,  for  instance,  is  a  chart  showing  the  Alaska  line 
of  variation.  To  simply  show  you  to  what  extent  this  varies  here. 
Here  [illustrating]  they  have  the  line  of  no  variation  which  runs  on 
through  Japan,  and  here  it  is  at  that  point  [illustrating]  and  that  vari- 
ation changes  on  this  curve  until  we  have  a  variation  of  minus  35. 
The  change  in  going  from  Unalaska  to  the  Pribilof  islands  means  a 
change  of  variation  very  decidedly,  and  on  this  chart  the  variations  are 
all  given.  Therefore,  I  think  it  will  be  easily  conceded  that  this  is  of 
the  utmost  importance  to  the  sailor. 

Now,  it  would  be  impossible  to  have  developed  that  work  at  sea. 
That,  I  think,  can  be  seen,  because  the  sea  is  not  a  good  place  to  make 
observations,  the  vessel  is  not  steady  and  it  is  often  difficult  to  get  the 
meridian  by  observations  of  the  ^tars  and  sun,  so  that  we  have  had  to 
depend  mainly  upon  observations  made  upon  the  land  and  on  some 
observations  made  at  sea  by  navigators,  upon  quite  a  number  of  them, 
for  our  understanding  of  the  question  of  magnetics  to  day.  We  have 
had  to  make  use  of  observations  which  they  make  at  sea,  but  still  they 
are  not  of  very  high  character.  The  only  solutioi;!  of  this  problem  has 
come  from  a  careful  study  of  the  law  as  prevailing  on  the  land  as  shown 
on  these  charts,  and  then  the  extension  of  that  out  to  sea.  That  is  the 
way  in  which  we  have  done  this,  by  studying  tliese  problems  from  the 
curves  and  then  extending  the  lines  out  to  sea  by  means  of  mathemati- 
cal processes,  and  we  have  succeeded  in  solving  the  problem  in  mag- 
netics as  far  as  we  have  thus  far  i>one. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Allow  me  to  interrupt  you  there;  I  would  like  to  know 
how  is  it  possible  to  project  a  variable  line  from  land  observations? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  That  we  do.  We  project  a  variable  line  with 
very  marked  curvature  from  one  point  to  another  simply  because  no 
natural  phenomena  ever  makes  a  sharp  turn;  that  is,  it  never  makes  a 
sudden  turn. 

Mr.  Enloe.  How  can  you  tell  the  point  at  which  it  does  turn  ? 

Prof.  Mbndbxhall.  But  I  say  it  never  makes  a  sharp  turn. 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  am  trying  to  get  information 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  And  I  am  trying  to  give  it  to  you,  if  you  will 
pardon  me.  The  way  in  which  we  do,  as  I  illustrated  a  moment  ago  in 
a  railroad,  if  you  see  a  railroad  curve  and  it  disappears  around  a  hill 
you  know  perfectly  well  it  does  not  turn  at  a  right  angle  because  no 
railroad  does  that. 

Mr.  Enloe.  But  how  do  you  know  it  turns  at  all! 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  We  are  justified  in  assuming  that  curvature 
extends  because,  of  course,  we  check  that.  We  always  check  our  work 
by  observations,  and  if  they  do  not  differ  materially  from  those  indi- 
cated by  this  theory,  we  assume  that  our  theory  is  correct.  I  admit 
what  is  called  in  scientific  work  "  exterpolation,"  that  is,  interpolating, 
if  you  please,  outside,  is  not  a  good  thing  to  do,  and  if  we  could  get  the 
facts  we  would  not  do  so,  but  we  are  forced  to  do  this;  as  a  matter  of 


TRANSFER    OF    COAST    AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY.  73 

fact,  we  have  had  to  do  it,  and  I  think  with  great  success,  as  can  be 
shown. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Do  you  use  the  observations  made  on  the  water  for  the 
purpose  of  verifying  these  lines'? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Yes,  sir.  We  make  a  theory  of  the  variations 
on  land  and  we  extend  these  lines  out  to  sea  and  then  there  are  obser- 
vations made  at  sea.  If  our  theory  is  far  wrong  that  will  show  it,  and 
if  not  we  will  follow  it.  Most  of  this  work,  of  course,  has  been  land 
work.  We  have  had  perhaps  a  thousand  stations  carried  through  the 
United  States  at  which  the  observation  of  the  magnetic  constant  is 
made.  I  do  not  mean  that  we  keep  men  at  these  magnetic  stations, 
but  to  each  one  we  send  a  man  out  who  spends  two  or  three  days  at 
one  station,  after  a  few  years  he  goes  and  makes  the  observations  again, 
and  a  few  years  after  that  either  he  or  another  man  goes  there  and 
makes  observations,  and  only  by  doing  that  repeatedly  have  we  found 
out  at  each  one  of  these  stations  the  change,  and  by  applying  that 
change  we  get  these  results. 

Mr.  Enloe.  As  I  understand  you  have  not  arrived  at  a  point  where 
you  can  say  it  is  a  law,  but 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  It  is  empirical,  a  law  based  on  observations 
combined  with,  of  course,  a  theoretical  knowledge  of  magnetism. 

Mr.  Enloe.  You  have  not  been  able  to  determine  what  the  law  is? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  l^o,  sir;  and  we  shall  not  be  able  to  determine 
it  until  the  work  is  continued  for  a  great  many  years  to  come,  and  one 
of  the  important  points  involved  in  this  is  the  question  of  the  magnetic 
pole  in  the  northern  part  of  i^Torth  America,  and  it  would  be  a  very 
important  expedition  which  must  sometime  be  undertaken,  and  the 
United  States  Government  can  well  afford  to  undertake  it  now,  to 
send  an  expedition  to  determine  the  magnetic  pole.  It  would  add  very 
much  to  the  solution  of  this  problem  aac  are  considering. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Considering  the  number  of  years  since  the  discovery  of 
this  variation  of  the  needle  by  the  scientific  observers  here  and  else- 
where, how  long  do  you  think  it  will  be  before  they  can  ascertain  what 
that  law  is  and  determine  it  definitely  unless  you  make  that  expedition  ? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  wish  I  could  answ^n^  that  question. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Considering  the  degree  of  progress  you  have  made  here? 

Prof  Mendenhall.  The  progress  of  science  is  such  it  maybe  dis- 
covered to-morroAV.  We  may  know  to-morrow,  but  of  course  I  do  not 
expect  it,  and  it  may  be  fifty  or  one  hundred  years,  or  ten  years;  but 
as  every  year  goes  by  we  are  increasing  the  accuracy  of  the  work  with 
great  precision. 

It  will  interest  the  committee,  probably,  if  I  illustrate,  as  I  have 
some  curves  which  only  came  in  yesterday,  a  very  curious  relation  we 
are  constantly  finding  between  magnetic  phenomena  and  some  other 
phenomena.  In  the  absence  of  a  stationary  observatory,  which  I  was 
about  to  mention,  this  connection  would  not  ha\^e  been  detected.  On 
that  sheet  I  have  there  a  couple  of  tide  curves.  This  is  the  tide  at 
San  Francisco  on  the  22d  of  March,  and  here  is  the  tide  at  the  Hawaiian 
Islands  of  the  same  date,  and  you  Avill  see  there  are  some  peculiar  feat- 
ures in  these  curves.  You  will  see  that  the  end  of  the  curve  starts 
out  smooth,  and  here  it  is  quite  rough,  and  here  it  is  a  little  rough  at 
this  point.  Usually  the  tide  curve  is  nearly  smooth,  being  affected  but 
little  by  the  motion  of  ordinary  waves  dashing  against  the  Avharf. 
These  waves  show  that  they  were  at  least  half  an  hour  in  length,  that 
is,  half  an  hour  from  the  crest  of  one  wave  to  the  crest  of  another 
wave.    Very  curiously,  on  the  same  date  and  covering  the  same  hours, 


74       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

we  had  some  men  making  magnetic  observations  in  an  observatory  in 
Texas,  wliicli  we  have  had  there  for  several  years,  and  the  observa- 
tions show  a  series  of  curves  distributed  in  the  same  waj^ 

Thus  you  see  now  a  very  unusual  disturbance  [illustratingj  -,  toward 
the  latter  end  you  can  see  the  roughness  of  the  curve.  This  curve  is 
photographed.  A  very  delicately  suspended  magnetic  needle  has  a 
mirror  so  arranged  as  to  reflect  a  beam  of  light  which  strikes  against 
a  sensitive  sheet,  and  that  sheet  is  kept  in  motion  all  the  time,  and  if 
the  needle  is  at  absolute  rest,  of  course,  it  makes  a  straight  line  on  that 
sheet,  but  if  the  needle  is  waving  at  all  the  line  of  light  is  variable,  and 
as  the  sheet  moves  it  produces  a  curve  like  this  [illustrating].  This  is 
the  way  in  which  we  get  the  history  of  the  changes  in  magnetic  forces 
at  this  time  going  on,  and  this  is  taken  every  hour,  minute,  and  sec- 
ond. We  have  a  record  of  just  what  has  been  done.  When  this  came 
to  us  it  attracted  our  attention  that  this  happened  to  the  tide  at  Hon- 
olulu and  the  tide  at  San  Francisco  at  the  same  time,  and  also  that 
there  was  at  the  same  time  a  disturbance  of  the  magnetic  needle  in 
Texas.     What  is  the  explanation! 

The  only  explanation  I  know  of  is  that  it  was  a  submarine  earthquake ; 
that  is,  an  earthquake  underneath  the  sea,  that  occurred  at  that  time 
between  San  Francisco  and  the  Sandwich  Islands,  which  produced  this 
wave,  and  this  wave  of  course  affected  the  tide  registers.  This  is  per- 
fectly simple,  and  we  have  had  it  happen  before,  that  a  submarine  earth- 
quake has  produced  this  effect,  l^^ow,  in  regard  to  its  magnetic  influ- 
ence, this  is  not  the  tirst  time  we  have  had  the  same  thing  occur  to  the 
magnetic  needle,  and  I  had  a  suspicion  a  year  or  two  ago  of  a  precisely 
similar  phenomenon.  Kow,  the  explanation  of  that  is,  and  this  is  the 
only  one  that  I  am  prepared  to  suggest,  that  the  compression  of  the 
crust  of  the  earth,  due  to  the  passage  of  the  wave  of  that  earthquake, 
altered  the  magnetic  constant  in  the  magnetic  held  and  produced  this 
variation  of  the  needle.  It  is  a  simple  fact,  but  it  may  be  a  fact  that  is 
filled  witli  the  utmost  importance  in  the  solution  of  these  problems 
which  are  before  us,  and  I  bring  it  to  your  attention  because  it  shows 
the  value  of  keeping  on  doing  this  work  without  always  being  abso- 
lutely sure  that  every  day's  record  is  worth  so  many  dollars  and  is  going 
to  accomplish  some  particular  thing;  because  we  can  not  tell  what  this 
may  be  worth  in  the  next  ten  years ;  we  can  not  tell  how  it  will  lend 
itself  to  the  solution  of  this  magnetic  i^roblem. 

A  study  of  the  sun  is  another  thing  of  the  very  utmost  importance 
in  the  solution  of  that  x)roblem,  but  I  presume  if  we  were  to  devote 
ourselves  in  the  Coast  Survey  to  an  observation  of  the  spots  upon  the 
sun  we  would  probably  be  subject  to  criticism  because  everybody 
would  ask,  what  has  that  to  do  with  the  production  of  charts  for  the 
use  of  navigators,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  we  should  have  been  doing 
it  for  the  last  twenty-five  years  if  it  had  not  been  that  somebody  else  did 
it  for  us,  because  it  has  been  the  solution  of  one  element  of  this  problem 
of  magnetics.  It  has  been  found,  as  many  of  you  are  aware,  that  the 
appearance  and  disappearance  of  the  spots  upon  the  sun  is  accompanied 
by  a  movement  of  the  magnetic  needle,  not  a  small  movement  but  a 
considerable  movement,  so  by  having  a  good  knowledge  of  the  coming 
and  going  and  periodicity  of  the  spots  upon  the  sun,  which  we  have 
now,  thanks  to  the  astronomers,  particularly  of  Europe,  we  are  enabled 
to  put  them  into  our  knowledge  of  magnetics,  and  the  magnetic  con- 
stant from  our  own  magnetic  observations  in  Texas  and  elsewhere 
shows  the  appearance  and  disappearance  of  the  spots  upon  the  sun 
with  perfect  regularity  and  precision.    Going  back  one  hundred  years 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.        75 

if  I  had  the  magnetic  constant  I  could  predict  the  sun  spots  which 
appeared  upon  the  sun.     The  value  of  this  is  very  apparent. 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  want  to  ask  you  if  l^he  Astro-Physical  Observatory  is 
not  doing-  that  work? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  It  i)robably  will  eventually,  but  it  has  not 
taken  up  the  problem. 

The  Chairman.  I  would  suggest,  professor,  that  you  suspend  your 
remarks  at  this  i>oint,  as  some  members  of  the  committee  are  obliged 
to  be  upon  the  floor  at  this  time. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Mr.  Chairman,  I  hope  that  the  committee  will 
not  only  indulge  me  another  hour,  but  more  chan  that  if  necessary, 
because  I  am  proceeding  a  little  more  slowly  than  I  anticipated,  but  I 
am  glad  to  have  had  these  questions  come  up,  but  I  wish  to  have  full 
opportunity  to  present  the  work  of  the  Survey. 

Thereupon  the  committee  adjourned  to  meet  on  Tuesday,  May  22, 
1894. 


Committee  on  Naval  Affairs, 

Tuesday,  May  22,  1893. 

The  Committee  on  Naval  Affairs  this  day  met,  Hon.  Amos  J.  CuM- 
MiNGS  in  the  chair. 

The  Chairman.  We  will  proceed  with  this  hearing  informally  until 
we  get  a  quorum  if  Prof.  Mendenhall  is 'ready  to  proceed. 


STATEMENT  OF  PROF.  T.  C.  MENDENHALL— Continued. 

Prof.  Mendenhall  then  addressed  the  committee;  he  said: 
Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Committee:  I  have 
already  referred  to  the  number  of  operations  wliich  are  necessary  to 
the  actual  construction  of  a  chart,  but  do  not  actually  appear  on  the 
chart,  but  are  operations  preliminary  to  its  construction,  namely,  the 
operations  of  base-line  measurement,  triangulation,  astronomical  work, 
tidal  observations,  and  magnetics.  The  chart  usually  contains  a  note, 
in  which  the  results  of  tidal  observations  are  given,  and  it  also  con- 
tains a  note  and  at  least  one  or  two  compasses  drawn  on  the  face  of 
the  chart,  which  give  the  result  of  the  magnetic  observations  as  far  as 
it  can  be  used  on  that  particular  chart.  With  these  exceptions  none 
of  the  work  which  I  have  thus  far  referred  to,  and  which  constitutes 
by  far  the  greater  part  necessary  to  the  production  of  the  chart,  ax^pears, 
and  I  think  I  am  justified  in  saying  from  75  to  90  per  cent  of  the  whole 
work  does  not  appear  on  the  chart. 

We  come  this  morning  to  that  which  does  appear  on  the  chart,  the 
first  being  the  topography.  The  topography  shown  on  the  chart  is- 
restricted  to  the  exhibition  of  the  coast  line,  which  is  absolutely  neces- 
sary, and  to  a  certain  strip  of  topography  adjacent  to  the  coast  line, 
the  width  of  which  strip  is  regulated  by  circumstances  and  conditions. 
As  1  stated  in  the  beginning,  it  is  dependent  upon  two  conditions, 
commerce  and  defense.  For  the  purposes  of  commerce  the  strip  of 
topography  must  be  sufficiently  wide  to  show  all  prominent  features,  so 
that  the  navigator,  in  case  he  is  approaching  a  harbor,  will  be  able  to 
identify  the  prominent  natupal  features,  such  as  hills,  valleys,  and  rivers, 
and  also  such  artificial  or  '^ culture"  features,  as  they  are  technically- 
called,  as  will  be  of  any  use  to  him  in  guiding  his  vessel  and  determin- 


76        TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

ing  liis  course,  as,  for  instance,  very  prominent  buildings,  cburcli  spires, 
and  all  that  sort  of  thing.  Of  course,  in  every  kind  of  a  harbor  chart 
a  very  careful  delineation  of  all  th^se  artificial  features  is  required,  as 
they  are  extremely  useful  to  the  navigator. 

Some  criticism  has  been  made  as  to  the  extent  to  which  the  Coast 
and  Geodetic  Survey  has  carried  this  topography.  I  will  not  discuss 
that  just  at  this  moment,  but  I  mention  it  to  say  that  I  will  take  it  up 
a  little  later  when  I  come  to  consider  other  criticisms  upon  the  work 
of  the  survey,  and  will  show,  I  think,  beyond  doubt,  that  the  topogra- 
phy of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  has  been  rather  less  in  extent 
than  might  be  expected,  in  fact  rather  less  than  the  average  of  all 
other  countries  which  maintain  a  coast  survey,  but  1  wish  to  call  your 
attention  as  briefly  as  possible  to  the  mode  in  which  that  topography 
is  executed. 

Suppose  a  harbor  has  not  been  surveyed  at  all,  or  a  coast  has  not 
been  surveyed  at  all.  It  is  necessary  to  provide  for  the  triangulation 
which  I  have  already  explained,  and  to  establish  points  and  their 
geographical  relation  to  each  other,  and  to  other  fixed  points  of  the 
base  line  and  datum  planes. 

The  topographer  is  then  sent  to  the  field.  Before  going  out. he 
receives  what  is  called  his  ''projection  sheet,"  which  I  will  merely  show 
you  here.  (Exhibiting  same.)  This  is  the  thing  the  topographer  starts 
out  with.  It  contains,  as  you  see,  lines  crossing  each  other,  which 
represent  the  parallels  of  latitude  and  the  meridians  of  longitude 
drawn  at  the  proper  distances  apart,  according  to  the  nature  of  the 
work.  This  is  all  he  has,  except  certain  points,  which  you  can  see 
here  marked  by  small  black  dots  scattered  over  the  sheet,  showing 
triangulation  points,  the  geographical  positions  of  which  have  been 
accurately  determined  by  the  previous  work.  Now,  the  topographer 
starts  out  with  this  sheet  in  his  possession.  He  then,  by  various 
methods,  which  I  can  not  well  detail  here,  makes  a  topographical  sur- 
vey, the  first  essential  naturally  being  the  drawing  of  the  shore  line. 
This  may  be  done  in  various  ways,  as  I  have  said,  but  I  will  remark 
that  the  topographical  method  in  general  use  in  the  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey  has  been  the  "plane  table"  method.     That  word  defines  it. 

By  means  of  this  plane  table  he  carries  this  sheet,  of  which  a  i)ortion 
is  exposed,  and  on  this  sheet  is  actually  constructed  the  map  of  the 
country,  the  topographical  map  which  he  is  drawing.  This  is  not  the 
method  which  is  used  universally  in  the  world,  but  it  is,  we  think,  the 
cheapest  method  that  is  in  use,  and  we  think  for  excellence,  combined 
with  cheapness,  there  is  no  method  comparable  to  plane-table  work. 
The  great  ordnance  survey  of  Great  Britain  was  not  made  with  the 
plane  table,  but  was  made  by  the  use  of  a  very  much  more  expensive 
process,  a  process  which,  in  the  judgment  of  many  topographers,  is  not 
nearly  so  good,  and  which  did  not  give  such  accurate  results  as  the 
plane-table  method. 

The  completed  work  of  the  topographer  is  shown  on  this  chart 
[exhibiting  same].    This  shows  Fishers  Island. 

I  began  by  showing  a  published  chart  of  a  portion  of  Long  Island 
Sound  containing  Fishers  Island.  The  sheet  before  you  is  actually  the 
original  sheet  made  by  the  topographer  in  the  field  in  1882,  Mr.  Herge- 
sheimer,  who  is  now  dead.  These  points  marked  in  red  show  the  trian- 
gulation points,  which  were  first  determined  in  order  that  he  might 
proceed  with  the  plane-table  method  in  the  construction  of  the  chart. 
Of  course  without  these  points  the  proper  construction  of  the  chart 
would  have  been  absolutely  impossible.    So  the  first  operation,  the  first 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.        77 

thiDg  embraced  in  the  production  of  a  chart,  is  the  topography.  Here, 
you  will  see,  the  wliole  island  is  surveyed,  many  of  the  charts  only 
show  a  narrow  rim  of  topography,  but  this  scale  is  very  large,  being 
1-10,000  of  nature,  and  here,  for  the  purpose  of  navigation,  the  whole 
area  is  actually  required  to  be  shown. 

We  give  here  all  buildings,  wharves,  and  all  that  kind  of  thing. 
This  being  a  small  island,  that  is  thought  to  be  necessary  and  desirable 
for  the  purpose  of  the  navigator  and  also  for  the  purposes  of  defense. 
This  is  tl\e  same  thing  [exhibiting]  showing  the  north  shore;  and 
is  also  an  original  sheet.  It  will  be  only  necessary  to  hold  it  up  to  let 
you  see  something  of  the  nature  of  the  Avork  we  have  done,  especially 
the  topographical  work.  We  do  not  extend  the  topography  indefinitely. 
We  only  take  a  certain  strip  showing  the  coast  and  shore  line,  which 
in  this  case  is  exceediugly  intricate. 

Now,  the  next  step,  and  the  final  step  in  the  field  in  the  production 
of  this  chart  is  the  hydrographic  work;  and  I  would  like  to  ask  the 
special  attention  of  the  committee  to  the  method  of  doing'this  which  I 
will  explain  of  course  as  briefly  as  possible.  You  will  observe  that  we 
have  noAV  got  the  tox)ographic  work  on  the  sheet  and  we  are  now  ready 
for  the  hydographic  work,  or  even  readj^  before,  since  whenever  the 
shore  line  is  completed  it  can  be  furnished  for  the  hydrographic  work. 
This  chart  shown  here  exhibits  the  same  area,  the  same  Fisher's  Island, 
ready  for  the  hydrographic  work.  When  a  hydrographer  goes  to  the 
field  this  sheet  is  what  he  takes  with  him. 

The  hydrographic  party  may  be  either  a  party  of  naval  officers  or 
civilians  who  have  undertaken  to  do  the  hydrographic  work.  A  sheet 
like  this  [exhibiting  same]  is  taken  with  him,  necessary  data  being  in 
this  case  the  shore  line,  which  shall  be  actually  drawn  on  the  sheet,  and 
as  many  other  artificial  points,  such  as  church  steeples,  prominent 
buildings,  and  particularly  the  triangulation  points  should  be  platted 
on  the  sheet  as  may  be  necessary  to  guide  the  hydrographer  in  the 
execution  of  the  hydrographic  work.  This  forms  the  original  sheet  of 
the  hydrographic  survey.  With  regard  to  the  execution  of  the  hydro- 
graphic  survey,  I  may  say  briefly,  it  consists,  as  I  am  sure  everybody 
knows,  of  running  a  line  of  soundings  in  a  definite  direction  and  in 
definitely  located  positions.  It  is  of  no  use  for  a  hydrographer  to  go 
out  on  the  water  and  drop  his  lead  and  determine  the  depth  of  the 
water  unless  he  knows  exactly  where  that  lead  is  dropped  so  he  can 
indicate  its  position  on  the  chart;  consequently  you  will  all  see  the 
absolute  necessity  for  this  preliminary  topographic  work  in  order  that 
the  positions  m^  be  located.  Various  methods  of  locating  these  sound- 
ings on  the  hydrographic  maps  have  been  adopted  from  time  to  time,  and 
later  on  I  will  say  something  about  the  changes  of  methods  which  have 
taken  place  in  the  last  twenty  years,  but  now  I  will  state  how^  it  is 
executed  at  the  present  time  by  us.  If  it  is  what  we  call  inshore 
hydrography,  that  is,  if  it  is  not  far  from  the  shore  and  where  points 
on  the  shore  can  be  seen  quite  readily,  the  work  is  executed  from  a 
boat.  If  the  vessel  has  a  sufficient  force  there  may  be  two  or  three  boat 
parties,  each  of  which  will  contain  enough  men  to  row  the  boat,  and 
of  course  a  leadsman  who  drops  the  lead  and  calls  out  the  depth,  and 
also  a  recorder  who. records  the  soundings,  and  two  men,  usually  young 
ensigns  if  the  work  is  done  by  a  naval  party,  with  sextants. 

The  use  of  the  sextant  is  to  determine  the  exact  position  of  the  boat 
at  any  given  time,  and  the  sextant  of  each  man  will  determine  the  angle 
between  two  points  on  the  shore,  which  may  be  high  church  spires  or 
signals  on  hills,  or  any  other  features  marked  on  the  chart.    One  man 


78        TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

determines  tlie  angle  between  two  points,  while  at  the  same  instant  the 
other  man  determines  the  angle  between  one  of  these  points  and  the 
third.  This  is  known  as  the  method  of  the  three-point  problem.  By 
means  of  these  angles  they  can  quickly  plat  on  the  chart  the  position  of 
the  boat  when  the  observations  were  made.  It  is  not  necessary  and  it 
is  not  customary  to  determine  by  angles  the  position  of  the  boat  at 
each  dropping  of  the  lead.    • 

We  find  that  when  the  boat  moves  at  auniform  rate,  soundings  inter- 
mediate between  two  determined  positions  of  the  boat  may  be  laid  down 
with  a  great  degree  of  accuracy,  if  the  time  is  noted  at  each  dropping 
of  the  lead,  as  well  as  at  each  point  determined  by  angles.  The  practice 
is  to  start  at  a  certain  point  and  run  a  straight  line  out  to  sea  as  far 
as  necessary,  and  then  oft*  a  little  distance  to  run  a  parallel  line. 

I  have  here  a  sheet  wliich  shows  the  exact  results  of  soundings  in 
this  area,  and  which  gives  you  a  better  idea  of  it,  perhaps,  than  I  can 
in  words.  This  sheet  shows  a  very  complete  piece  of  work  and  will 
give  you  a  good  idea  of  its  nature  [exhibiting  same].  As  far  as  possi- 
ble lines  are  run  parallel  to  each  other,  and  all  of  these  points  show 
where  the  soundings  were  made.  These  indicate  the  depth  of  the 
water  in  feet :  and  these  other  lines  are  run  across  the  first  series  in 
order  that  if  any  errors  should  occur  in  this  work  they  may  be  detected 
by  the  cross  lines.  That  is  to  say,  where  these  lines  cross  the  depth 
of  water  should  of  course  be  the  same  by  each  line,  and  if  it  is  not,  the 
error  is  thus  detected.  Sometimes  we  run  diagonal  lines  which  give  a 
still  greater  check,  so  we  have  the  ground  gone  over  quite  thoroughly 
by  the  sounding  parties.  This  method  which  you  see  here  is  our  pres- 
ent method  of  making  soundings. 

Here  is  a  survey  around  the  same  island  (Fishers  Island),  and  this 
chart  is  of  value  for  purposes  of  illustration  because  it  shows  a  large 
number  of  points*  determined  by  triangulation  of  the  plane  table 
which  were  actually  necessary  in  order  that  these  soundings  could  be 
made.  For  instance,  running  along  this  line  [illustrating]  the  parties 
using  the  sextant  would  determine  the  angle  between  this,  that,  and 
another  point,  three  points,  and  in  that  way  certain  positions  would  be 
located.  We  sometimes  determine  the  positions  by  having  parties 
stationed  on  the  shore  with  instruments  at  two  points,  theodolites  in 
both  cases.  A  signal  being  giv-en  on  the  boat  by  the  dropping  of  a 
handkerchief  or  flag,  the  theodolite  is  used  at  each  station  on  the  shore 
and  the  sextant  on  the  boat,  and  afterwards  the  position  can  be  platted 
on  the  chart.  But  much  more  of  the  work  is  done  by  the  previous 
method,  and  that  is  the  method  which  is  preferred.     « 

This  chart  is  a  very  good  representation  of  the  modern  method  of 
doing  hydrographic  work  of  this  character.  The  tidal  observations 
must  be  made  constantly  at  some  near  point.  That  is  to  say,  we  must 
have  the  several  stages  of  the  tide  read  very  frequently,  every  hour  or 
sometimes  oftener  than  that,  so  that  we  may  know  the  tidal  curves,  as 
I  explained-  the  other  day.  To  obtain  the  real  depth  of  the  water  the 
state  of  the  tide  when  the  sounding  was  made  must  be  known.  Let  us 
say  the  sounding  is  made  at  high  water.  Now,  the  datum  plane  to 
which  soundings  are  referred  is  mean  low  water.  That  is,  whenever 
you  see  on  one  of  our  charts  that  the  water  is  sq;id  to  be  19  feet,  it 
means  19  feet  at  mean  low  water.  At  high  water  it  may  be  24  feet, 
but  by  knowing  the  state  of  the  tide  at  that  moment  we  can  of  course 
reduce  it  and  find  out  the  exact  depth  of  the  water.  The  mean  low 
water  does  not  represent  the  lowest  of  low  waters  which  may  occur 
during  any  period,  but  represents  the  average.     So  if  the  chart  shows 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.        79 

19  feet  of  water  at  one  point,  you  may  peiiiai^s  find  at  low  water  21  feet 
or  17  or  18  feet,  because  low  water  varies.  Low  water  is  not  always 
the  same,  nor  is  high  water. 

This  kind  of  hydrography  of  which  I  now  speak  is  that  which  gives 
what  is  sometimes  called  the  topography  of  the  bottom  of  the  sea.  Tlie 
topographer  on  land  represents  on  our  chart,  as  we  have  seen,  all  the 
elevations  and  depressions,  etc.  Unfortunately  we  can  not  see  the 
bottom  of  the  sea,  and  therefore  the  methods  of  determining  the  varia- 
tions and  topography  of  the  bottom  of  the  sea  must  be  quite  different, 
and  they  are  different,  as  I  have  shown.  The  comparison  has  often 
X)resented  itself  to  me  in  this  way.  If  one  were  surveying  the  topog- 
raphy of  this  country  from  a  balloon  floating  at  a  long  distance  from 
the  earth  and  he  should  let  down  a  measuring  line  and  take  different 
depths  and  soundings,  he  could  get  a  fairly  good  ideaof  the  elevations 
and  depressions  of  the  surface  of  the  earth,  but  as  that  is  accessible  to 
us  we  do  better  than  that.  We  get  the  topography  of  the  sea  by  the 
methods  indicated. 

There  is  another  kind  of  hydrography,  however,  which  is  of  very 
great  importance  and  to  which  I  must  refer  very  briefly,  which  we  call 
''l)hysical  hydrography,"  which  differs  from  the  x)receding  perhaps  more 
with  regard  to  the  object  that  is  in  view  than  the  method  of  proced- 
ure. This  hydography  which  I  have  described  explains  itself.  It  is  to 
give  to  the  navigator  the  knowledge  as  to  the  depth  of  the  water  over 
which  he  can  sail.  Physical  hydrography  is  rather  for  tlie  purpose  of 
studying  the  laws  of  the  movements  of  the  currents  and  tides  at  par- 
ticular places,  and  especially  for  determining  the  effect  of  these  currents 
and  tides  on  the  physical  features  of  the  land.  It  is  well  known  to  all 
of  youth  at  our  Atlantic  seacoast  particularly  is  constantly  undergoing 
changes.  We  have  hardly  a  harbor  in  this  country  that  is  a  constant 
harbor;  that  is,  nearly  all  are  being  modified  as  years  go  by,  and  some 
of  them  very  materially  so.  This  does  not  mean  simply  a  modification 
of  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  although  that  is  very  marked  in  some  par- 
ticular harbors  towards  the  south.  If  you  take  Charleston  Harbor  and 
Brunswick  Harbor,  and  some  others  that  have  been  rather  recently 
looked  into  and  take  the  shoals  off  Nantucket,  the  charts  which  have 
been  published  a  year  or  two  are  out  of  date. 

These  changes  which  take  place  are  very  material,  and  even  the  land 
itself  has  changed,  as  in  the  case  of  New  Jersey,  for  instance,  where  the 
changes  have  been  very  marked.  Our  chart  of  Charleston  Harbor,  in  the 
present  instance,  shows  a  considerable  projection  of  land  out  into  the 
harbor  which  does  not  exist  at  the  present  time  at  all.  We  have  been 
at  work  but  we  have  not  yet  been  able  to  bring  that  chart  up  to  date, 
to  show  all  of  these  changes.  We  want  to  determine  what  these 
changes  are,  and  for  the  purposes  of  the  navigation  and  civilization 
and  enlightenment  we  want  to  determine  the  causes  of  the  changes;  we 
want  to  find  out  what  is  going  on  and  why  those  changes  are  being 
brought  about.  This  is  what  physical  hydrography  means,  and  some 
of  our  studies  in  physical  hydrography  have  been  in  the  past  of  the 
greatest  importance.  I  might  cite  New  York  Harbor,  where  many  of 
the  improvements  which  have  been  made  have  been  the  results  of  the 
study  of  iihysical  hydrography  by  the  Coast  Survey. 

The  study  of  the  movements  of  the  currents  of  the  harbor  and  the 
passage  of  the  water  from  Long  Island  Sound  into  the  lower  "harbor  is 
of  very  great  value  to  commerce  and  to  the  city  of  New  York,  but  we 
have  been  prevented  from  continuing  that  in  the  last  two  years  by  the 
absence  of  the  man  who  began  it,  and  the  only  man  perhaps  in  the 


80  TRANSFER    OF    COAST   AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY. 

country  competent  to  do  it.  Physical  hydrograpliy  is  that  sort  of 
hydrography  by  which  we  investigate  the  laws  and  operations  of  the 
currents  and  their  etiect  upon  the  coast,  and  the  final  results  that  may 
be  expected  from  these  effects.  We  have  not  spent  much  money  (par- 
ticularly recently)  on  that  subject,  but  we  have  usually  one  or  two 
parties  for  a  few  months  every  year  engaged  in  i)hysical  hydrography. 
It  is  a  much  more  difficult  process  than  ordinary  hydrography,  as  the 
refinement  of  measurements  is  necessarily  greater;  in  other  words,  to 
be  a  good  physical  hydrographer  requires  very  long  training  and  very 
great  experience.  I  regret  to  say  we  have  but  very  few  physical 
hydrographers  in  this  country  and  I  have  been  endeavoring  for  the  last 
three  or  four  years  to  secure  one  who,  by  his  experience  and  train- 
ing, would  be  qualified  to  do  that  work  which  lies  before  the  Coast  Sur- 
vey in  that  direction  and  which  would  be  of  indefinite  and  almost  infi- 
nite value  if  it  could  be  done;  and  although  I  have  searched  the  country 
very  thoroughly,  I  have  been  unable  to  find  any  one  who  could  be 
employed  by  us  for  that  purpose. 

Now,  I  wish  to  refer  a  little  further  to  the  matter  of  interior  triangu- 
lation  and  a  few  other  points  which  are  brought  out  in  our  work,  to 
complete  the  presentation  which  I  have  attempted  to  make  of  the  char- 
acter of  the  work  of  the  Survey.  In  addition  to  this  interior  triangu- 
lation,  we  carry  on  in  the  interior  a  system  of  precise  levels  which  has 
been  authorized  by  appropriations  of  Congress  for  many  years  and 
which  is  working  its  way  also  across  the  continent,  having  reached  just 
a  little  bit  beyond  Kansas  City.  That  means  we  are  running  a  line  of 
precise  levels  across  the  continent  with  as  high  a  degree  of  precision  as 
we  can.  This  degree  of  precision  is  of  course  very  much  higher  than 
that  of  the  ordinary  engineer  leveling  process.  I  say  as  high  as  we 
can  because  I  feel  myself^  and  I  am  sure  that  others  do,  that  we  have 
not  yet  the  degree  of  precision  in  the  leveling  which  is  absolutely  desir- 
able, but  I  think  we  are  equally  as  far  along  as  foreign  nations. 

Now,  the  question  might  be  asked:  What  is  the  use  of  running  a 
line  of  precise  levels  across  the  continents  There  are  innumerable 
uses.  In  the  first  place,  any  map  of  the  country  which  maj^  be  eventu- 
ally made — it  may  not  be  made  now,  but  in  fifty  years — but  whenever 
an  accurate  map  of  the  United  States  is  made  it  must  contain  the  dif- 
ferences of  levels  and  therefore  it  would  be  important  for  that.  Take 
France,  for  instance.  France  has  only  recently  laid  out  a  scheme  of 
precise  leveling,  which  is  one  of  the  smallest,operations  of  our  Survey — 
that  is,  we  pay  the  least  attention  to  it — and  the  total  cost  of  this  in 
France  is  calculated  to  be  about  $5,000,000,  a  sum  almost  infinitely 
large  compared  to  anything  we  have  expended  or  contemplated  expend- 
ing, and  that  shows  the  imx^ortance  in  wliich  it  is  held  by  the  French 
Government.     But  there  are  other  uses. 

Only  yesterday  I  had  a  call  from  a  gentleman  from  Denver,  who  was 
very  anxious  to  know  how  soon  or  when  our  precise  levels  would  reach 
that  city.  He  had  been  investigating  the  railroad  surveys  at  Denver, 
and  had  found,  which  is  an  interesting  fact,  and  shows  the  impor- 
tance of  the  work  being  done  Avith  the  greatest  precision,  that  by  fol- 
lowing the  levels  of  the  several  railroads  which  enter  that  city,  although 
the  rails  came  in  and  ran  side  by  side  into  the  depot,  so  that  they  looked 
to  be  of  the  same  level,  he  found  actually  a  difference  of  50  feet  between 
levels ;  that  is,  if  he  followed  the  level  of  one  line  and  then  the  other 
when  they  came  together  there  ai^i^eared  to  be  a  difference  of  50  feet. 
Whenever  it  became  necessary  for  railroads  to  connect  with  each  other 
leveling  of  that  kind  must  be  regarded  as  very  curious,  and  I  have  had 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.        81 

the  greatest  demand  for  these  precise  levels  by  railroad  engineers  all 
over  the  country.  We  have  run  along  the  thirty- ninth  parallel  and  we 
have  planted  bench  marks  wherever  we  could,  definitely,  and  every 
geological-survey  party  that  goes  into  the  neighborhood  and  every 
State  survey  has  attached  itself  to  this  line  of  levels.  It  is  required, 
for  instance,  in  Missouri,  by  the  State  geological  survey  for  the  purposes 
of  triangulation,  and  although  it  is  one  of  the  least  expensive  opera- 
tions I  think  we  have  been  engaged  in,  yet  it  has  been  considered  as 
one  of  the  most  important,  and  I  speak  of  it  as  representing  a  part 
of  the  necessary  operations  carried  on  by  the  Coast  Survey,  which, 
of  course,  could  only  be  carried  on  by  the  organization  such  as  we  now 
have. 

Mr.  Enloe.  On  that  point,  I  would  like  to  ask  if  that  could  not  be 
done  by  tlie  Geological  Survey  ? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Yes,  sir;  if  you  make  the  Geological  Survey  what 
the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  is,  but  you  can  not  unless  you  do  that. 
That  is  to  say  if  you  have  the  same  men  and  the  same  standard  of 
accuracy,  with  the  same  disposition,  and  same  power  in  any  corps  of 
men,  of  course  the  same  kind  of  work  can  be  done,  and  that  is  perfectly 
clear,  and  it  is  not  necessary  to  call  it  one  thing  or  another,  but  without 
wishing  to  reflect  at  all  upon  the  character  of  the  work  done  by  the 
Geological  Survey  the  Geological  Survey  knows  perfectly  well  it  has 
never  done  such  a  thing  and  that  with  the  present  organization  it 
would  be  absolutely  impossible  to  do  such  work.  It  never  had  the 
material  or  the  men  or  the  organization  by  which  such  work  can  be  done, 
and  they  will  tell  you  that  just  as  frankly  as  I  will. 

The  Chairman.  Speaking  about  the  difficulty  in  finding  experienced 
hydrographers,  are  there  not  experienced  hydrographers  in  the  ^avy 
Department  ^. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  None  of  the  kind  of  which  I  speak.  There  is 
not  a  man  in  the  Navy  Department  who  can  be  considered  a  hydrog- 
rapher  of  the  type  of  man  to  which  I  referred,  and  there  can  not  be 
in  the  case  of  a  man  who  works  for  three  years  on  one  thing  and  the 
next  three  years  on  another  and  whose  whole  interest  is  necessarily 
that  of  a  warrior,  whose  service  is  in  the  military  department  of  the 
Government  and  must  naturally  be. 

The  Chairman.  Then  is  it  your  opinion  the  hydrographic  department 
of  the  Navy  is  worthless  ? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  By  no  manner  of  means. 
■    The  Chairman.  If  you  can  not  get  a  hydrographer  there,  why  is  it 
not? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  use  the  word  in  a  different  sense  from  what 
you  are  using  it;  I  particularly  distinguished  between  the  two  types  of 
hydrographers  which  we  are  discussing,  and  I  think  the  committee  will 
bear  me  out  in  that.  That  one  type  of  hydrography  which  consists  of 
making  these  coast  soundings  is  done  with  excellent  results  by  our 
naval  officers. 

The  Chairman.  If  you  will  bear  with  me,  I  am  endeavoring  to  learn 
why  it  is.  Your  long  lecture  is  about  the  work  of  the  Coast  and  Geo- 
detic Survey,  which,  of  course,  is  very  interesting,  but  I  want  you  to 
apply  it  to  the  bill,  and  I  understand  your  position  is  this,  that  it  is 
utterly  impossible  for  the  Navy  Department  or  for  the  Geological 
Department  to  do  the  work  which  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  SurvejL  are 
now  doing? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Under  the  present  organization  of  those  two 
4561 6 


82        TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

departments;  yes,  sir.     That  is  my  i^osition.    If  you  will  pardon  me,  a 
little  later  on  1  liope 

Mr.  Enloe.  Before  you  get  away  from  that  I  want  to  know  if  you 
take  the  position  that  the  Navy  Department  could  not  procure  just  as 
competent  men  as  you  have  employed  in  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Sur- 
vey, or  the  Geological  Survey  could  not  get  the  same  character  of  serv- 
ice you  are  using  there  *? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  think  the  Navy  Departm'ent  would  have  great 
difficulty  in  securing  the  services  of  comi>etent  men.  A  transfer 
of  a  part  of  the  work  to  the  Geological  Survey  would  undoubtedly 
result  in  lowering  the  standard  of  accuracy  of  such  work.  I  will  refer 
more  at  length  to  that  subject  later  on.  I  am  jjrepared  to  discuss  that 
question,  but  I  simply  want  to  present  the  character  of  work  before 
considering  the  character  of  organization  necessary  for  its  execution. 
I  think  that  is  the  logical  order  in  which  it  should  be  x)i'esented.  I 
refer  to  this  triangulation  as  being  of  value  and  to  the  precise  leveling 
as  being  of  value  in  furnishing  points  and  datum  planes  for  State  sur- 
veys. The  topography  to  which  I  have  just  referred,  as  I  said  the  other 
day,  and  a\  hich  1  anticipated  in  the  course  of  my  remarks,  is  naturally 
restricted  by  us  to  a  narrow  line  and  has  always  been  restricted  inten- 
tionally. The  triangulation  necessary  for  the  construction  of  State 
maps  must  be  executed  by  the  United  States;  it  should  not,  in  my  judg- 
ment, be  executed  by  local  authority,  and  I  would  like  to  show  just  now 
one  or  two  maps  which  illustrate  what  other  nations  have  done  in  the 
direction  of  this  triangulation,  so  it  may  be  seen  that  we  have  not  cer- 
tainly at  the  present  time  done  what  we  would  have  been  expected  to 
accomplish  in  this  Government  as  compared  with  others. 

I  referred  also  tlie  other  day,  and  I  will  not  expand  upon  it  now,  to 
the  use  of  these  triangulations  being  inade  in  the  various  States.  In 
the  States  of  Tennessee,  New  Jersey,  Minnesota,  and  other  States 
there  is  more  or  less  activity  in  this  direction,  and  they  have  been  of 
great  use  in  local  surveys. 

Now,  pardon  me  for  interrupting  just  a  moment  to  show  a  map  of 
India.  I  spoke  the  other  day  of  the  survey  of  India.  That  chart  will 
show  just  what  has  been  done  there  in  the  way  of  a  system  of  triangu- 
lation, whereas  we  have  run  a  certain  line,  which  is  almost  completed 
now,  which  would  correspond  to  this  one  line  across  the  country  like 
this  [illustrating  on  map].  We  have  also  run  another  shorter  line 
called  our  oblique  arc  running  along  there,  and  that  is  all  we  have  thus 
far  done,  and,  as  will  be  seen,  that  nation  has  done  much  more.  Here 
is  a  triangulation  maj)  of  the  continent  of  Europe  which  is  on  a  smaller 
scale,  but  you  will  be  able  to  see  it  very  well  and  all  the  red  lines  indi- 
cate the  triangulation,  and  you  will  see  that  practically  the  whole  of 
Europe,  with  the  exception  of  Eussia,  is  almost  covered  with  triangu- 
lations, and  Eussia  has  begun  its  extensive  arc  east  and  west  of  this 
line  [illustrating]  and  has  planned  for  another  arc  in  a  north  and  south 
direction.  I  wanted  to  exhibit  this  simply  to  show  that  we  were  very 
far  behind  in  our  work  of  this  character,  as  compared  with  European 
nations. 

I  referred  the  other  day  to  the  usefulness  of  this  triangulation  work 
in  regard  to  the  settlement  of  boundary  lines  disputes. 

I  will  add  this  morning  to  what  1  then  stated;  I  referred  to  the 
boundary  line  between  Pennsylvania  and  Delaware,  and  I  would  like 
to  add  that  the  boundary  line  between  California  and  Nevada,  which 
has  been  for  a  long  time  in  dispute,  is  now  being  determined  for  a  cer- 
tainty by  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey.    This  is  a  line  of  exceeding 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 


sS 


difficulty.  It  has  been  already  surveyed  three  or  four  times  and  the 
amount  of  money  that  lias  been  already  expended  in  attempting  to 
survey  that  line  I  think  is  more  than  twice  if  not  fully  three  times  the 
amount  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  will  extend  for  its  complete 
execution  in  a  manner  which  will  never  need  to  be  repeated.  The  dif- 
ficulty of  that  line  is  such  that  all  previous  attempts  have  been  failures, 
and  we  have  been  called  upon  to  exec'ute  the  work  by  our  methods  and 
by  our  processes  and  they  are  so  rigorous  that  it  will  be  done  in  such 
a  way  it  need  never  be  done  again,  and  at  a  much  less  cost  than 
already  expended  on  previous  operations. 

In  the  case  of  Ohio  and  Indiana,  I  think  probably  I  referred  to  that 
the  other  day.  A  boundary -line  dispute  which  was  supposed  to  affect 
1,200  square  miles  arose  between  those  two  States,  and  a  very  short 
examination  of  the  subject  by  methods  which  we  use  and  which  could 
not  be  used  by  local  authorities,  as  was  well  recognized  by  local  sur- 
veyors, determined  that  instead  of  there  being  1,200  square  miles  erro- 
neously taken  from  one  State  to  another  there  were  about  100  square 
miles,  and  that,  therefore,  leaves  it  to  the  States  to  settle,  and  the  value 
of  that  survey  was  very  great  compared  with  the  cost  of  it. 

I  will  say  at  this  point  also  that  in  the  work  of  our  survey  it  is  neces- 
sary to  know  the  figure  of  the  earth,  the  shape  of  the  earth.  For 
instance,  in  this  boundary-line  dispute  between  California  and  Nevada 
the  reason  why  the  line  never  was  correctly  surveyed  before  was  because 
those  who  attempted  it  have  not  properly  understood  the  method  of 
surveying  an  oblate  spheroid ;  that  is,  a  round  body  which  approximates 
very  closely  to  the  real  figure  of  the  earth. 

Heretofore  the  United  States  has  contributed  in  a  very  small  way 
compared  with  most  countries  to  a  determination  of  the  figure  of  the 
earth.  Several  years  ago  there  was  organized  in  Europe  an  interna- 
tional geodetic  association,  the  principal  object  of  which  was  to  deter- 
mine accurately  the  form  of  the  earth.  The  United  States,  some  years 
ago,  shortly  after  the  organization  of  that  body,  was  made  by  treaty  a 
member  of  that  convention.  We  have  not  had  a  delegate  there  for  sev- 
eral years,  but  still  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  is  a  part  of  that 
international  convention  for  the  determination  of  the  figure  of  the 
earth.  The  necessity  for  this  determination  is  shown  whenever  you 
attempt  to  run  any  extensive  line  such  as  this  boundary  line  to  which 
I  have  referred. 

The  figure  of  the  earth,  its  general  form,  its  dimensions,  etc.,  can 
also  be  determined  and  the  form  of  it  can  be  ascertained  with  great 
degree  of  accuracy  by  what  is  known  as  gravimetric  work,  so  we  have 
included  in  the  Coast  Survey  a  determination  of  the  force  of  gravity  at 
various  points  upon  the  surface  of  the  United  States.  Sir  Isaac  New- 
ton was  the  first  to  recognize  the  importance  of  the  study  of  the  force 
of  gravity  in  relation  to  the  form  of  the  earth,  and  was  the  first  to  sug- 
gest that  it  was  an  oblate  spheroid  flattened  at  the  poles,  instead  of 
being  a  sphere,  and  everybody  knows  that  the  further  you  go  from  the 
center  of  the  earth  the  less  the  force  of  gravity  is ;  so  if  we  determine 
the  force  of  gravity  at  Washington  and  also  at  New  York,  Montreal, 
and  say  a  hundred  or  a  thousand  other  points  throughout  the  country 
where  it  is  desired  to  make  such  determinations,  and  then  by  bringing 
all  those  facts  together  and  comparing  the  relative  forces  of  gravity  at 
these  points,  we  are  able  to  obtain  the  form  or  figure  of  the  earth ;  so 
the  gravimetric  work  of  the  Coast  Survey  is  one  of  the  features  that 
has  been  carried  on  for  a  number  of  years.  It  has  not  caused  a  large 
expenditure  of  money,  but  it  is  a  kind  of  work  that  everybody  who 


84        TRANSFER  OP  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

knows  anythiug  about  it  knows  requires  very  high  attainments  of 
mathematical  and  physical  knowledge,  and  for  a  man  to  be  successful 
in  such  observations  he  must  have  long  training  and  experience,  and  I 
mention  it  as  being  one  of  the  im])ortant  things  in  which  long  and  con- 
tinued training  is  necessary  in  order  to  acconjplish  results. 

Now,  in  addition  to  these  things  which  I  have  mentioned  and  which 
I  have  touched  on  this  morning  quite  rapidly,  because  I  wish  to  use  no 
more  of  the  committee's  time  than  I  am  entitled  to,  we  have  a  very 
important  bureau  in  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  to  which  I  feel 
bound  to  refer  at  some  greater  length,  and  that  is  the  Office  of  Weights 
and  Measures.  This  bill,  which  provides  for  the  breaking  up  and 
destruction  of  the  Survey  and  its  division  into  two  bureaus,  makes  no 
provision  whatever  for  the  distribution  of  the  office  of  Weights  and 
Measures.  There  is  nothing  said  about  the  Office  of  Weights  and  Meas- 
ures in  this  bill.  Now,  what  is  the  intention  of  Congress  in  case  this 
action  should  be  successful  of  course  I  can  not  know.  I  would  like 
to  call  your  attention  to  the  great  importance  of  that  office,  and  to  its 
original  connection  with  the  Survey,  and  to  the  fact  that  it  must  have 
an  administration  which  can  not  differ  greatly  from  the  present  admin- 
istration. It  has  been  suggested,  I  believe,  by  some  person  that  it 
might  remain  a  bureau  of  the  Treasury  Department.  Of  course  it 
might  remain  a  bureau  of  the  Treasury  Department,  and  I  think  it 
belongs  more  properly  to  the  Treasury  Department  than  to  any  other, 
just  as  I  think  all  of  this  work  belongs  there  more  than  anywhere  else; 
but  if  it  is  disconnected  from  its  present  relations  with  the  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey  it  would  at  once  become  one  of  two  things.  It  would 
be  either  practically  destroyed  and  its  usefulness  would  be  lost,  or 
else  it  would  at  once  become  a  source  of  very  serious  expense  to  the 
Government.  It  is  now  maintained,  as  I  shall  show,  at  a  cost  less 
than  that  of  any  similar  bureau  maintained  by  any  other  government 
in  the  world.  This  is  solely  on  account  of  its  relations  to  the  Coast 
and  Geodetic  Survey.  It  became  necessary,  as  I  think  I  stated  in 
the  beginning,  to  have  standards  of  the  highest  degree  of  precision 
in  order  to  carry  on  the  Coast  Survey.  The  first  superintendent,  Mr. 
Hassler,  was  sent  to  London  to  obtain  these  standards  and  he  brought 
oyer  with  him  a  standard  82-inch  bar,  a  very  interesting  and  curious 
historic  relic  which  we  now  have  in  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey. 
This  bar  was  divided  into  inches  by  a  prominent  London  instrument 
maker  and  it  was  supposed  to  represent  the  English  yard  and  inch  at 
that  time,  and  it  became  the  foundation  for  the  standard  of  the  Coast 
and  Geodetic  Survey  operations. 

Now,  when  the  Government  discovered,  as  it  did  very  early,  of  course, 
that  it  was  necessary  to  have  a  standard  of  weights  and  measures  in 
order  to  collect  customs  properly,  it  gave  attention  then  to  the  fixing 
of  this  standard,  and  it  became  important  to  know  what  a  yard  was 
in  order  to  levy  customs  on  the  yard.  It  became  important  to  know 
what  a  pound  was,  so  that  the  weight  of  a  pound  might  be  properly 
used  in  the  levying  of  customs,  and  the  whole  people  of  the  United 
States  were,  of  course,  greatly  interested  in  this.  Now,  it  is  known  to 
all  of  you  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  authorizes  Con- 
gress to  provide  a  system  of  weights  and  measures  and  coinage,  but 
perhaps  many  of  you  do  not  recollect  that  with  regard  to  weights  and 
measures  Congress  has  almost  absolutely  neglected  that  duty.  Of 
course,  in  regard  to  coinage  something  had  to  be  done,  and  that  was 
done  at  an  early  day,  but  for  a  long  period  the  U.  S.  Government  had 
no  legislation  on  the  subject  of  weights  and  measures,  and  the  conse- 


TRANSFER    OF    COAST   AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY.  85 

que  nee  was  there  grew  up  all  over  the  Union  widely  varied  standards 
of  weights  and  measures. 

New  York,  for  instance,  had  a  different  gallon  and  j)ound,  and  the 
other  States  had  standards  which  were  different.  This  was  of  course 
a  very  unhappy  condition  of  things,  and  gave  rise  to  the  establishment 
of  the  Office  of  Weights  and  Measures,  in  Washington,  in  the  Coast  Sur- 
vey, primarily  for  the  object  of  furnishing  to  the  Treasury  Department 
the  standards  of  weights  and  measures  and  adjusting  them,  and, 
secondly,  for  the  object  not  of  legislating,  because  the  Treasury  Depart- 
ment had  no  power  to  legislate,  but  to  furnish  to  all  the  States  of  the 
Union  copies  of  the  standards  which  were  in  use  by  the  Government, 
in  the  hope  that  the  various  States  of  the  Union  might  Ibllow  its  exami)le 
and  ad()i)t  these  copies  of  the  standards.  This  was  done,  and  this  was 
one  of  the  first  important  functions  of  the  Office  of  Weights  and  Meas- 
ures, and  nearly  all  the  States  of  the  Union  adopted  the  standards  dis- 
tributed by  the  U.  S.  Government  as  their  standard;  that  is,  they 
adopted  the  copies  distributed,  and  New  York  by  and  by  gave  up  its 
standard,  and  thus  they  came  to  have  an  absolute  uniformity. 

I  know  of  no  subject  to  day  on  which  ignorance  is  so  prevalent  as 
the  subject  of  weights  and  measures;  and  it  is  a  fact  that  there  have 
been  certain  Territories  and  States  which  have  very  severe  laws  to 
punish  anyone  who  uses  false  weights  and  measures,  and  yet  there  is 
no  law  whatever  which  prescribes  what  the  weights  and  measures  shall 
be.  It  all  rests  on  tradition,  tliere  being  no  legislation.  The  United 
States  Government  has  never  prescribed  a  system  of  standard  weights 
and  measures,  but  in  ISOO  the  metric  system  was  made  permissive. 
Therefore,  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  being  engaged  in  doing 
this  precise  Avork  and  requiring  a  standard,  it  was  easy  to  make  the 
Superintendent  of  the  Coast  Survey  the  superintendent  of  the  office  of 
weights  and  measures,  and  that  has  continued  from  that  time  until 
to-day,  and  the  Superintendent  of  the  Coast  Survey  is  to-day  the  super- 
intendent of  the  office  of  weights  and  measures. 

Now,  the  operations  of  that  office  are  very  varied  and  are  of  the 
utmost  importance,  and  I  wish  to  call  your  attention  to  a  few  of  the 
operations  which  we  perform  in  that  office,  after  which  I  wish  to  refer 
to  the  relatively  very  small  expense  that  the  Government  is  subject  to 
in  the  conduct  of  that  office.  These  weights  are  obtained  by  tiie  public 
from  various  sources,  the  Fairbanks  Scale  Company  is  one,  the  Howe 
Scale  Conii)any  is  another,  and  many  other  scale  companies.  Now,  what 
guarantee  have  the  people  that  the  Fairbanks  i^ound  is  a  pound  or  that 
the  Howe  Scale  Company^s  pound  is  a  pound*?  There  must  be  a  stand- 
ard of  reference.  Now,  that  standard  is  our  office  in  the  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey.  The  Fairbanks,  the  Howe,  and  all  the  scale  compan- 
ies inv^ariably  from  time  to  time  send  their  standards  to  us  and  we  cor- 
rect the  standards  for  them  and  determine  the  error  for  them  and  thus 
they  have  necessarily  kept  in  touch  with  us  because  our  office  is  the 
only  properly  legalized  representative  of  these  weights. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  May  I  ask  you  what  is  the  average  variation? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  It  will  depend  entirely  upon  the  kind  of  weight 
you  have.  For  instance,  the  weight  which  is  ordinarily  used  for 
rough  purposes  in  the  market  may  vary  as  much  as  10  i)er  cent  from 
the  true  weight,  while  the  druggist's  weight  is  much  more  accurate.  It 
is  to  the  credit  of  such  great  establishments  as  Fairbanks  and  Howe 
that  they  have  taken  the  greatest  pains  and  have  gone  to  the  greatest 
expense  to  have  the  most  accurate  and  precise  standards  possible,  and 
are  doing  that  almost  weekly.     Such  firms,  for  instance,  as  the  Howe 


86  TRANSFER   OF    COAST   AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY. 

Company  will  keep  a  pound  a  few  years  as  a  standard  and  then  send 
it  back  and  have  it  corrected. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  How  do  you  acquire  your  standards'? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Our  standard  weights  at  present  are  fixed  in  a 
very  curious  and  a  very  interesting  way,  and  I  am  very  glad  to  answer 
that  question.  The  only  general  legislation  which  Congress  has  made 
in  regard  to  weights  and  measures  was  in  1866,  when  they  passed  a  law 
legalizing  the  use  of  the  metric  system,  that  will  be  known  to  many  of 
you.  So  that,  curiously  enough,  it  happens  that  the  meter  and  the 
kilogram  are  to-day  the  legal  measures  of  weight  and  length  of  the 
whole  United  States,  whereas  the  pound  and  yard  have  not  been 
legalized  by  act  of  Congress.  That  is  a  curious  condii  ion  of  things, 
but,  after  all,  many  of  us  have  considered  it  rather  desirable;  that  is, 
we  have  not  regretted  that  Congress  has  been  slow  in  doing  this 
because  it  enabled  us  more  readily  to  put  ourselves  on  the  same  plane 
with  other  great  governments  in  adopting  a  true  unit  of  measure  and 
mass  like  the  kilogram  and  meter.  About  twenty  years  ago  an  inter- 
national organization  was  formed  of  a  most  interesting  character  for 
an  examination  of  standard  weights  and  measures,  that  is,  for  the  con- 
struction and  adoption  of  a  standard  meter  and  a  standard  kilogram, 
and  about  twenty-five  nations  are  in  this  organization,  which  is  known 
as  the  International  Bureau  of  Weights  and  Measures.  It  does  its  work 
on  a  small  plot  of  ground  near  Paris,  which,  as  far  as  anything  can  be, 
is  absolutely  a  neutral  spot  of  ground. 

This  plot  of  ground  was  demanded  by  these  twenty- five  great  nations 
as  a  neutral  spot  of  ground  and  it  is  so.  These  nations  have  claimed 
it  and  the  French  have  admitted  it.  During  the  last  twenty  years  it 
has  devoted  itself  to  the  construction  of  beautiful  standard  copies  of 
the  kilogram  and  meter.  This  work  was  carried  on  until  about  three 
years  ago  it  was  completed  and  these  copies  were  distributed  among 
the  twenty-five  nations,  to  England  and  all  European  nations  and 
many  of  the  South  American  nations.  We  received  about  three  or  four 
years  ago  two  beautiful  copies  of  this  international  meter,  made  of 
platinum  iridium,  and  we  also  received  two  copies  of  the  international 
kilogram,  which  is  a  weight  of  a  little  moiethan  2  pounds  (22.10  pounds), 
also  made  of  platinum  iridium,  and  this  standard  in  the  absence  of  any 
legislation  has  been  adojited  as  our  standard.  la  view  of  the  absence 
of  any  legislation  determining  our  standard,  and  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  our  old  Hassler  yard,  so-called,  is  a  very  rude  and  a  crude  stand- 
ard, such  as  no  civilized  nation  to-day  would  adopt,  we  have  adopted 
the  meter  and  kilogram  m  accordance  with  the  international  agree- 
ment as  the  standard  of  length  and  the  standard  of  mass  in  this  coun- 
try, and  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  in  a  bulletin  issued  a  little  more 
than  a  year  ago,  defined  the  yard  as  being  a  certain  fraction  of  a  meter 
and  defined  a  pound  as  being  a  certain  fraction  of  a  kilogram,  and 
so  our  pound  and  yard  are  derived  from  this  international  agreement 
and  standard. 

The  Chairman.  I  would  suggest,  professor,  that  the  hour  has  now 
arrived  for  the  meeting  of  the  House.  How  much  more  time  do  you 
desire  to  complete  your  remarks? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  should  think  I  could  get  through  in  two  more 
hours. 

The  Chairman.  While  your  remarks  are  very  interesting  and 
instructive  the  ])oint  before  the  committee  is  whether  you  claim  it  is 
utterly  impossible  for  the  Navy  Department  and  the  Geological  Sur- 
vey to  do  the  work  which  you  are  now  doing,  and  the  reason  why  ? 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.        87 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  It  is  just  what  I  \\ish  to  present,  but  I  would 
like  to  say  now  I  do  not  claim  of  course  the  utter  impossibility  of  their 
performing  anything,  but  I  claim  this  thing  should  not  be  done  unless 
one  or  two  things  should  be  secured,  greater  efficiency  or  greater  econ- 
omy.    Those  are  the  points. 

Thereupon  the  committee  adjourned  to  meet  on  Friday,  May  25, 
1894. 


Committee  on  ^aval  Affairs, 

Friday,  May  25^  1894, 
The  Committee  on  Kaval  Affairs  this  day  met,  Hon.  Amos  J.  Cum- 
;    miugs  in  the  chair. 

The  Chairman.  The  committee  will  come  to  order,  and  if  Prof.  Men- 
denhall  is  ready  to  proceed  with  his  remarks  we  will  be  obliged  to  him. 

STATEMENT   OF  PROF.  T.  C.  MENDENHALL— Continued. 

Prof.  Mendenhall  then  addressed  the  committee,  he  said : 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Committee,  I  wish  to 
refer  very  briefly  again  this  morning  to  the  oi^eration  of  the  office  of 
weights  and  measures  which  I  had  just  begun  to  consider  at  my  last 
hearing  before  the  committee.  In  addition  to  the  standardizing  of 
weights  to  which  I  then  referred  at  some  lengtli,  this  office  standard- 
izes tapelines,  yard  measures,  and  all  sorts  of  linear  measures  for  engi- 
neers. In  fact  the  Avhole  engineering  fraternity  of  the  country  depends 
upon  the  office  of  weights  and  measures  for  the  accurate  determination 
of  their  units  of  length.  We  have  a  long  standard,  100  feet  long,  which 
is  frequently  in  use  for  standardizing  these  tape  measures  for  use  as 
standards  of  precision  for  the  engineers  of  the  country.  It  is  not  nec- 
essary to  mention  farther  the  benefits  which  must  result  from  this 
class  of  work. 

In  addition,  referring  to  some  perhaps  rather  more  refined  work  and 
a  work  of  great  importance  to  the  Government,  the  other  work  being 
of  more  importance  to  tlie  people  at  large,  I  will  refer  to  the  standard- 
izing of  bars  for  the  Ordnance  Bureau.  The  very  accurate  and  precise 
measurements  which  are  necessary  for  the  construction  of  ordnance  are 
only  possible,  of  course,  through  the  acquisition  and  possession  of  very 
precise  standards.  These  standards  have  been  prepared  at  our  office. 
The  office  also  does  a  very  extensive  work  for  the  Treasury  Department 
which  relates  directly  to  the  collection  of  internal  revenue,  not  only  for 
the  standardization  of  the  ordinary  weights,  etc.,  on  which  the  whole 
collection  of  reveiuie  depends,  but  a  special  standardization  of  alcohol- 
ometers and  hydrometers  which  are  used  for  the  determination  of  the 
strength  of  liquors  and  various  kinds  of  alcohols.  These  all  come  to 
the  office  of  weights  and  measures  and  they  are  standardized  and  pre- 
pared for  use.  Also  the  very  extensive  collection  of  revenue  from 
sugars  throughout  the  last  few  years,  and  for  many  years  in  fact,  has 
depended  upon  the  standardization  made  by  the  office  of  weights  and 
measures. 

You  are  doubtless  quite  familiar  with  the  methods  of  determining 
the  various  grades  of  sugar,  and  among  others  is  what  is  known  as  the 
polariscope  test.  It  may  not  be  seen  at  first  just  what  relation  we  have 
with  a  polariscopic  test,  but  a  slight  reflection  will  show  that  it  must 


88-       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

be  a  close  one.  The  principle  of  that  test  will  be  of  interest  to  you 
doubtless,  for  [  can  illustrate  it  on  a  little  arrangement  I  have  here,  so 
as  to  give  you  an  idea  of  the  work  of  that  character.  You  are  all  aware 
of  the  fact  that  in  o?  dinary  eyeglasses  there  are  two  kinds  of  glasses 
which  are  commonly  used,  one  of  which  is  known  as  the  pebble  glass, 
the  other  the  ordinary  glass.  The  pebble  glass  is  ground  out  of  quartz, 
so  that  they  are  higher  priced  and  usually  possess  some  desirable  qual- 
ifications, one  being  that  the  pebble  glass  is  rather  more  transparent, 
but  this  difference  is  not  apparent  without  a  careful  scrutiny. 

If  you  go  to  a  well-arranged  optician's  establishment  and  ask  to  buy 
pebble  or  ordinary  glasses,  he  will  show  you  at  once  the  means  of 
detecting  one  kind  from  the  other,  but  they  look  very  much  alike  and 
there  is  a  great  deception  practiced  all  over  the  country  in  that  respect. 
Many  hundreds  of  thousands  of  glasses  sold  as  pebble  are  not  i^ebble 
glasses.  The  reliable  optician  will  show  you  at  once  the  manner  of 
determining  the  true  pebble,  by  means  of  a  little  instrument,  which  is 
the  very  instrument  used  in  determining  the  standard  of  sugar.  Be- 
cause of  its  simplicitj^  I  thought  it  well  to  present  it.  Here  is  a 
device  such  as  is  used  for  the  inspection  of  pebble  glass  made  into 
spectacles.  It  consists  simply  of  two  plates  of  a  peculiar  crystal  that 
is  known  as  '^  tourmaline,"  one  in  front  and  the  other  in  the  rear  and  a 
space  between  for  the  introduction  of  the  glass  which  is  to  be  deter- 
mined, or  the  sugar,  if  you  are  going  to  determine  sugar. 

This  crystal  has  a  very  i)eculiar  property  of  polarizing  the  light;  that 
is  to  say,  by  looking  through  one  of  those  ciystals  it  is  partially  trans- 
parent, having  a  slight  greenish  shade,  which  is  always  a  characteristic 
of  this  kind  of  a  crystal,  and  if  I  look  through  the  other  it  is  equally 
transparent.  If  I  put  both  together  and  look  through  them  I  will  see 
clearly  and  distinctly.  If  I  turn  it  a  little,  if  I  move  it  about  in  a  cer- 
tain line  as  I  noAv  turn  it  in  this  direction  [exhibiting],  in  such  a  posi- 
tion, the  light  is  absolutely  cut  off.  In  other  w^ords,  it  has  a  peculiar 
property  that  after  the  light  has  passed  through  one  of  these  it  can  not  go 
through  the  other  unless  the  other  is  in  a  certain  definite  position.  If 
I  arrange  it  so  [exhibiting]  the  light  is  cut  oft'  and  then  insert  between 
those  two  glasses  my  own  eyeglass  and  look  through  it,  the  light  is 
still  cut  off.  If,  how^ever,  I  insert  a  pebble  glass,  which  is  ground  from 
crystal,  instantly  the  field  is  clear,  although  the  two  glasses  look  pre- 
cisely alike,  and  you  are  not  able  to  detect  the  difference,  yet  one  of 
them  in  the  field  renders  it  instantly  clear  and  transparent  while 
the  other  does  not.  I  have  shown  you  this  simply  to  make  the 
point  that  a  crystal  possesses  the  property  which  it  has  been  found  is 
possessed  by  a  solution  of  sugar  that  of  twisting  a  ray  of  light  after  it 
has  passed  through  one  of  these  polarizing  pieces  and  to  turn  it  in 
such  way  tliat  it  can  go  on  through  the  other,  whereas  if  it  is  not 
twisted  or  turned  in  that  way  it  can  not  go  through  the  other. 

The  Opiairman.  How  is  it  when  the  tourmaline  crystals  both  carry 
the  light:  what  effect  does  it  have  on  the  crystal  itself? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Xone  at  all. 

The  Chairman.  Is  it  dark  ? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  No,  sir;  it  is  not  dark.  It  does  not  change  it 
sensibly,  and  if  the  quartz  is  a  little  different  from  the  sugar  the  effect 
of  the  sugar  would  be  as  intimated,  to  twist  this  ray  a  little  and  repro- 
duce the  darkness,  but  unless  the  crystal  is  somewhat  dift'erent  from 
the  solution  of  sugar  it  simply  clears  the  field  up  in  the  manner  I  have 
indicated.  It  happens  to  sonu',  extent,  if  I  insert  here  instead  of  this 
quartz  crystal  a  solution  of  sugar,  which  is  put  in  any  kind  of  a 


TRANSFER    OF    COAST    AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY.  89 

tube  about  that  long  [illustrating],  with  the  ends  properly  ground,  and 
of  clear  glass;  if  we  put  that  solution  of  sugar  between  these  two 
polarizing  pieces  the  result  is  that  there  is  a  certain  rotation  of  the  ray 
of  light,  the  amount  of  which  can  be  determined  by  this  eyepiece  in 
the  manner  I  have  indicated,  and  it  is  the  amount  of  that  turn,  taken 
in  connection  with  the  length  of  the  tube  and  the  concentration  of  the 
solution  of  sugar,  that  determines  the  i)urity  of  the  sugar.  That  is 
what  is  meant  by  sugar  of  so  many  degrees  in  your  tariff  laws.  It  is 
so  many  degrees  of  rotation  of  this  eyepiece  which  clears  up  the  field 
or  appearance,  or  change  of  color,  according  to  the  system  we  may 
use. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  What  is  meant  by  the  word  ''fine?" 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  If  itAvas  05°  it  would  mean  a  rotation  of  95°  in 
order  to  produce  a  certain  definite  effect,  and  that  effect  varies;  it  may 
be  used  to  produce  th©  greatest  degree  of  darkness,  or  probably  to  pro- 
duce the  maximum  degree  of  light,  or  a  certain  color  of  light,  and  it  is 
turned  until  that  is  produced.  But  in  one  way  or  another  it  is  easily 
established  that  the  amount  of  the  grai)e  sugar  in  this  solution  is  deter- 
mined with  great  i)recision  by  this  method,  and  by  a  higher  i^recision, 
of  course,  than  any  other  simple  method  that  has  been  devised.  Thus 
you  can  in  a  moment  determine— 1  mean  in  half  an  hour  probably — the 
quality  of  the  sugar,  whereas  a  chemical  analysis  would  be  a  long, 
laborious,  and  expensive  affair. 

Now,  our  part  of  this  work,  which  has  been  of  great  importance  to 
the  Government,  and  which  can  not  be  done  except,  of  course,  where 
proper  arrangements  and  proper  men  are  to  be  found,  consists  in  stand- 
ardizing these  quartz  plates  which  are  used  here  as  an  equivalent  of 
the  sugar  solution.  The  quartz  plates  come  from  Europe,  and  they  are 
ground  to  a  certain  definite  degree  of  thickness  and  have  a  purely 
arbitrary  numerical  standard  attached  to  them,  and  when  they  come, 
in  order  that  they  may  be  used,  we  prepare  our  own  solution  of  sugar 
of  so  many  degrees.  We  make  various  degrees  of  the  soluti(m  of  sugaii 
We  put  that  sugar  in  these  tubes.  We  then  put  these  quartz  plates  in 
and  work  at  it  until  we  find  what  is  the  real  meaning  of  the  various 
Avorkings  of  that  polariscope  in  sugar  strength.  That  is  called  stand- 
ardizing the  quartz  plates,  and  we  do  that  for  all  the  custom-houses 
in  the  country.  Three  or  four  years  ago  there  was  a  very  great  differ- 
ence in  the  standards  of  sugar  determination  in  the  three  great  cities 
of  Boston,  yew  York,  and  Philadelphia,  and  the  sugar  dealers  were 
constantly  complaining  that  at  one  of  these  i^laces,  I  have  forgotten 
which,  sugars  of  a  very  low  grade  were  quoted  as  sugars  of  a  high 
grade,  or  vice  verna. 

Mr.  Talbott.  It  was  stated  against  Baltimore  in  that  way. 

Prof.  Mendehall.  So  as  a  result  we  were  called  upon  to  make  a 
general  investigation  of  the  subject  of  the  standardizing  of  these 
plates.  I  will  say  that  the  same  subject  was  first  referred  several  years 
ago  to  a  committee  of  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences  and  they  pre- 
pared one  or  two  standard  ])lates  for  use  by  the  Government.  But  we 
found  on  taking  up  this  questioft  that  even  the  National  Academy  had 
overlooked  the  consideration  of  one  or  two  essential  features  which  we 
were  obliged  to  notice,  namely,  the  effect  of  temperature  on  this  quartz 
constant,  and  we  spent,  therefoi-e,  a  good  deal  of  time  going  over  the 
work,  with  the  final  result  that  the  sugar  standard,  when  we  finished 
that  careful  investigation,  is  to-day,  I  think,  uniform  throughout  the 
United  Sta|:es  at  all  pojnts.  Every  now  and  then  we  get  such  quartz 
plates  to  be  standardized. 


90        TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

More  than  that,  we  must  standardize  all  the  flasks  which  the  sugar 
inspectors  use.  It  would  not  do  to  let  the  standard  of  the  flasks  of  the 
inspector  at  New  York,  or  Washington,  or  Philadelphia,  or  Baltimore 
difler,  because  on  this  the  uniformity  of  the  work  depends,  so,  we 
being  separated  entirely  from  the  revenue  collection,  having  nothing 
whatever  to  do  with  it,  standardize  all  of  these  flasks,  and  then  they 
are  distributed.  Thermometers  are  also  standardized  by  us  for  the 
very  same  reason,  and  in  the  matter  of  the  sugar  standard  ah)ne  1  think 
it  can  l)e  stated  that  the  value  of  this  bureau  has  exceeded  many  times 
its  total  cost  to  the  Government  in  the  last  few  years.  It  has  saved  in 
that  time  much  expensive  litigation. 

I  might  tell  you  other  things  we  do,  while  I  am  referring  to  the  more 
important  operations  of  the  ottice  of  weights  and  measures.  Another 
important  thing  is  to  come  to  us  very  soon,  owing  to  the  remarkable 
growth  of  a  new  industry  in  the  last  ten  years. .  There  has  been  a  bill 
introduced  into  Congress  (No.  6500)  for  the  adoption  of  a  system  of 
units  of  electrical  measure.  We  now  have  in  the  United  States  prob- 
ably $200,000,000  or  $300,000,0(10  invested  in  electricity,  in  electrical 
machinery,  and  instruments  for  the  use  of  electricity,  and  all  that  enor- 
mous capital  is  doing  a  commercial  business  absolutely  without  meas- 
uring tlie  product  which  it  puts  forth  or  consumes.  It  is  very  much 
as  if  we  were  to  do  our  commercial  business  of  the  country  without  the 
means  of  determining  what  a  yard  or  a  pound  was;  everybody  here 
realizes  that  commerce  would  be  in  a  very  confused  condition  in  such  a 
case. 

That  is  true  in  regard  to  electricity  at  this  time.  You  make  contracts 
with  electrical  companies  to  do  a  certain  thing  to  light  your  town  or 
city,  and  they  agree  to  put  up  so  many  candle-power  lights  aroundyour 
town  or  city,  say  2,000  candle  power,  and  they  apparently  comply  with 
that  agreement.  You  have  no  means  whatever  of  determining  if  they  do 
comply  with  that  agreement  and  you  have  no  legal  process  to  make 
them  comply  with  it.  There  is  no  legislation  at  all  upon  the  subject. 
A  2,000-candle-power  light  is,  for  instance,  almost  unknown  in  the 
ordinary  arc  light.  It  is  a  tradition  that  the  electric  lights  are  2,000 
candle  power.  There  are  very  few  of  them  that  have  more  than  1,000 
candle  power  and  they  run  from  600  or  800  up  to,  perhaps,  1,500  candle 
power  for  the  very  best,  and  yet  contracts  are  made  in  terms  of  2,000 
candle  power  lights.  Now,  both  sides  have  suftered  in  the  last  few 
years  from  the  lack  of  a  standard. 

The  people  have  suffered,  and  have  suffered  with  less  complaint  than 
those  who  furnished  it,  the  contractors,  but  the  latter  occasionally  have 
been  made  to  suffer  very  materially  by  i>eople  refusing  to  fulfill  the 
contracts  which,  after  all,  were  being  satisfactorily  executed  by  the 
contractors,  and  thus  there  has  grown,  as  I  say  without  further  detail, 
a  very  great  demand  for  these  electrical  units.  An  international  con- 
gress of  electricity  was  held  at  Chicago  last  summer,  the  fourth  held 
since  1881,  for  the  purpose  of  determining  electrical  units.  They  were 
agreed-upon  unanimously,  and  a  bill  has  been  introduced  in  the 
House  for  a  legal  adoption  of  those  units  in  this  country.  We  feel,  and 
have  every  reason  to  believe  and  hope  the  bill  will  become  a  law.  There 
can  not  be  any  opposition  to  it,  and  it  is  requested  by  all  the  great  elec- 
tric companies  in  the  country.  Companies  representing  $100,000,000 
have  petitioned  for  the  passage  of  that  bill,  and  certainly  the  interest 
of  the  people  demand  it. 

I  give  this  to  show  that  before  long  the  furnishing  of  an  electrical 
standard  is  a  thing  which  must  come  to  the  office  of  weights  and 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.       91 

measures.  There  is  no  other  phice  for  it  to  go  under  the  Government, 
and  there  can  be  no  other  place  in  the  Government,  and  I  think  it  will 
be  readily  seen  that  in  order  to  conduct  it  properly  it  will  require  a 
class  of  men  to  supervise  it  and  administer  it  who  have  given  their 
attention  and  energies  to  this  subject  for  many  years.  You  can  not 
put  work  of  this  kind,  so  obscure  and  diflBcuIt,  in  the  hands  of  those 
who  are  not  trained  to  it. 

Kow,  a  word  in  regard  to  the  relation  of  this  bureau  and  the  Coast 
Survey.  I  said  the  other  day,  by  reason  of  the  relation  of  this  bureau 
to  the  Coast  an(i  Geodetic  Survey  the  maintenance  of  the  bureau  has 
been  a  great  source  of  economy  to  the  Government. 

The  cost  of  this  bureau  for  the  present  year,  with  all  of  this  very 
important  work  that  I  have  detailed,  has  been  the  trifling  sum  of 
$4,690,  and  that  is  what  it  is  proposed  to  appropriate  for  the  coming 
year — only  $4,690.  In  other  words,  we  employ  in  that  bureau  only  4 
persons — an  adjuster,  a  mechanician,  a  messenger  and  a  watchman — 
and  the  bureau  costs  nothing  at  all  for  rent  of  building.  We  have  not 
even  a  clerk  in  that  bureau.  Now,  this  is  possible,  and  only  possible, 
by  the  fact  that  the  superintendent  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey 
is  superintendent  of  this  office  of  weights  and  measures,  and  he 
administers  it,  therefore,  without  additional  compensation  and  without 
additional  cost.  The  office  has  its  home  in  the  office  of  the  Coast  Sur- 
vey, and  it  has  its  administration  in  its  executive  officer.  In  the  offi- 
cers of  the  Coast  Survey  there  are  several  quite  competent  to  do  this 
work,  and  under  the  direction  of  the  superintendent,  who  must  be 
always  one  who  has  had  more  or  less  experience  in  this  sort  of  thing, 
the  work  goes  on  in  such  a  way  that  it  has  always  been  recognized  as 
of  high  standing  both  at  home  and  abroad 

The  relation  we  have  determined  between  the  meter  and  yard  has  a 
standing  equal  to,  if  not  higher,  than  any  European  authorities,  and  if 
this  bureau  were  to  be  taken  away  from  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey, 
under  its  present  organization,  its  cost  would  immediately  multiply 
itself  many  times.  It  must  do  that  or  else  the  Government  must  decide 
it  will  ignore  an  organization  of  this  kind,  which,  of  course,  no  Govern- 
ment can  do.  Its  cost  will  not  be  less  than  $30,000,  $40,000,  or  $50,000 
a  year,  and  most  of  the  European  governments  spend  as  much  as 
$100,000  on  it,  while  in  England  they  have  a  large  building  and  a  large 
corps  of  officers  distinct  from  other  bureaus  for  the  execution  of  this 
work.  This,  I  think,  is  one  of  the  strong  arguments  for  the  continua- 
tion of  the  relations  which  exist  between  this  bureau  and  the  Coast 
and  Geodetic  Survey. 

iSTow,  gentlemen,  having  thus  given  in  detail,  which  I  trust  has  not 
been  fatiguing,  as  I  felt  it  necessary  that  you  may  have  some  idea  of 
the  work  of  the  office,  I  will  refer  directly  to  the  proposed  change,  the 
proposed  modification  of  this  bureau,  and  I  will  repeat  what  I  said  in 
the  beginning,  that  any  change  of  this  kind  ought  to  be  made  for  some 
reason.  I  think  all  of  you  will  agree  with  me,  that  unless  there  is  some 
reason  for  this  change  it  is  uncalled  for,  and  I  fancy  you  will  agree  with 
me  in  the  statement  that  that  reason  can  only  be  one  of  two  things — 
either  to  secure  a  greater  efficiency  in  the  execution  of  the  work,  or 
a  greater  economy  in  the  execution  of  the  work,  or  both — and  I  propose 
to  speak  as  briefly  and  as  rapidly  as  possible  in  regard  to  those  two 
things. 

As  to  the  matter  of  efficiency  I  think  I  can  justly  say  the  efficiency 
can  not  well  be  better  than  it  is  now  and  may  easily  be  less,  but  the 
fact  that  it  can  not  be  greater,  I  think  I  can  show,  if  it  is  necessary,  by  the 


92        TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

united  testimouy  of  those  who  are  qualified  to  judge  in  this  country  and 
all  over  the  world,  as  to  the  efficiency  of  this  bureau.  You  may  think 
it  is  too  expensive,  but  I  say  as  to  the  work,  as  to  the  output  of  the 
bureau,  it  has  received  the  commendation  of  the  civilized  world;  but  I 
will  refer  a  little  more  to  this  subject  of  efficiency,  and  particularly  to 
the  relation  of  the  present  system  to  the  naval  contingent  of  the  Coast 
and  Geodetic  Survey.  I  want  to  speak  first  of  the  value  of  the  present 
system  to  the  naval  officers  and  the  value  of  the  present  system  to  the 
Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey.  To  do  that  clearly  I  will  invite  your 
attention  to  what  probably  many  of  you  know,  and  that  is  what  the 
present  system  is. 

We  have  now  a  detail  from  the  Navy  Department  to  the  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey  of  41  naval  officers,  the  highest  ranking  officer  being 
that  of  a  lieutenant-commander  (we  have  not  had  for  many  years  a 
ranking  officer  higher  than  that)  and  running  down  to  tlie  rank  of 
ensign,  the  larger  number  being  lieutenants,  and  we  have  250  men. 
That  is  our  detail  from  the  Navy  Department  at  the  present  time.  We 
are  indebted,  therefore,  to  the  Navy  Department,  an  indebtedness  which 
we  have  never  failed  to  recognize  in  every  po^^sible  way,  although  I 
know  the  contrary  has  been  stated,  and  which  I  wish  to  show  is  a  mis- 
understanding before  I  get  through.  We  are  indebted,  tlierefore,  to  the 
Navy  Department  for  what  I  might  say  the  loan  of  those  men  in  the 
execution  of  the  operations  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey.  The 
reason  for  that,  of  course,  grows  out  of  the  original  idea  of  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  Bureau.  As  I  said  in  the  beginning,  it  is  organized  very  much 
on  the  basis  of  the  Light-House  Establishment,  which  we  know  is  pre- 
cisely similar  in  this  respect,  except  that  the  Navy  Dei)artment  loans 
officers  of  a  very  much  higher  rank  than  to  us;  it  loans  officers  to  the 
Fish  Commission;  it  has  been  the  same  way  in  many  bureaus,  because 
the  method  had,  as  I  firmly  believe,  many  advantages  on  both  sides. 

I  do  not  wish  to  fail  to  recognize  the  advantages  of  this  organiza- 
tion, and  I  repeat,  then,  that  we  might  say  that  the  Navy  Department  has 
loaned  those  officers  and  men,  and  therefore  the  cost  of  the  naval  con- 
tribution to  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  is  very  easily  and  very  accur- 
ately ascertained.  It  has  been  stated,  I  think  either  be  fore  the  committee 
or  elsewhere,  that  there  Avere  no  means  of  telling  what  this  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey  was  costing.  A  very  curious  statement  certainly,  and 
I  remind  you  that  there  is  no  bureau  of  the  Government,  I  think  I  may 
safely  say  that,  which  makes  a  more  accurate  and  precise  accounting 
to  the  Government  of  its  works  than  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey. 
Every  year  there  is  put  before  Congress,  and  every  year  there  is  put 
on  your  tables,  I  fancy,  a  letter  written  by  the  Superintendent  of  the 
Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  in  which 
the  exi)enditure  of  every  dollar  of  the  appropriation  is  shown  and  in 
which  every  man  who  receives  a  dollar  of  that  appropriation  is  found. 

That  is  done  annually  and  there  need  be  no  question  or  doubt  in 
regard  to  what  is  done.  We  are  therefore  indebted,  as  I  say,  to  the 
Navy  for  the  expenses  of  these  men,  which  amount  to  about  $17,000  a 
month  for  both  officers  and  men,  or,  in  round  numbers,'  almost  exactly 
$200,000  per  annum  is  what  the  Navy  Department  contributes  at  the 
present  time.  Now,  it  will  be  borne  in  mind  that  this  is  all  they  contrib- 
ute. That  is  all,  and  1  say  that  not  wishing  to  lessen  the  value  of 
the  contribution,  but  the  vessels  all  belong  to  the  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey,  all  the  maintenance  of  the  vessels  comes  from  the  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey  appropriation,  and  the  pay  of  any  extra  subsistence 
which  may  be  given  to  the  officers  or  men,  and  the  traveling  expenses 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.       93 

of  the  men  across  the  contiueiit,  back  and  forth,  all  comes  from  the  Coast 
and  Geodetic  Survey  appropriation;  in  fact,  every  dollar  of  it,  except 
simply  the  salary  of  those  men  who  are  detailed.  Kow,  these  naval 
officers  and  men  at  the  present  time  are  found  upon  eight  vessels ;  that  is 
to  say,  we  have  eight  vessels  at  this  time  in  commission.  These  are  not 
large  vessels;  the  largest  of  them,  I  think,  is  GOO  or  700  tons  burden 
(the  Patterson),  which  is  a  vessel  engaged  almost  entirely  in  Alaska 
work.  They  run  from  that  down.  We  have  seven  steam  vessels  and 
one  schooner. 

The  Chairman.  Are  these  vessels  owned  by  the  Navy  or  by  the 
Treasury  Department  ? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  They  all  belong  to  the  Treasury  Department. 
We  have  nothing  that  comes  from  the  Navy  Department  except  the 
men.  The  value  of  this  connection  to  the  Navy  is  one  which  has  been 
emphasized  by  very  many  people,  and  every  naval  officer  that  I  know 
of  who  has  ever  been  engaged  in  this  work  at  all  has  borne  very  ear- 
nest testimony  to  this  fact.  The  value  of  that  comes  in  several  ways. 
The  young  officers  are  here  placed  in  positions  of  responsibility  that 
they  would  not  reach  until  they  became  gray-headed  in  the  naval  serv- 
ice proper.  They  are  here  placed  in  command  of  vessels,  in  fact  all 
our  vessels  except  one  are  ander  the  command  of  officers  ranking  as 
lieutenants.  So  an  officer  has  a  command  in  this  way  which  he  would 
not  get  until  he  was  gray-headed  in  the  regular  service  of  the  Navy. 
That  additional  responsibility  carries  with  it  also  an  additional  amount 
of  freedom  in  the  exercise  of  their  work,  which  the  officers  appreciate 
very  highly. 

Now,  I  could  if  I  had  the  time,  but  my  time  is  limited  and  I  feel  that 
I  must  hasten  along  here,  I  could  read  the  testimony  of  many  officers 
on  this  matter,  and  you  will  find,  if  you  wish  to  look  for  it,  in  the  report 
of  the  joint  commission  of  1884  there  is  a  great  deal  there,  from  officers 
connected  with  the  Survey,  and  there  has  not  been  an  officer  connected 
with  the  Survey  who  has  not  testified  to  the  value  of  the  work,  not  only 
the  value  of  the  work  simply  in  itself,  but  the  value  of  the  work  to  the 
naval  officer  on  account  of  the  existing  organization  of  the  Survey,  and 
they  would  say  to  you  that  the  value  of  the  work  is  greatly  enhanced 
by  the  fact  that  the  naval  officer,  in  making  a  detailed  survey,  is  taken 
out  of  the  regular  routine  of  naval  discipline  and  brought  in  contact 
with  a  class  of  men  whose  lives  are  entirely  different,  who  have  devoted 
their  time  to  a  different  kind  of  work,  and  whose  standard  of  accuracy 
is  the  very  highest,  and  these  naval  officers  come  in  contact  with  these 
men  and  their  work  at  the  office  in  Washington,  or  elsewhere,  and  are 
brought  in  contact  with  them  directly. 

I  have  combined  civil  and  naval  parties  and .  they  have  worked 
admirably,  and  I  can  not  point  to  a  single  instance  in  which  there  has 
been  any  friction  or  any  difficulty  between  the  two  branches  of  this 
service,  and  my  aim  has  been  not  to  separate  these  two  bodies  but  to 
mold  and  fashion  them  together  to  a  greater  degree  than  before  so 
that  I  might  get  all  the  possible  benefits  of  the  amalgamation  between 
civilians  and  naval  officers  which  might  benefit  all  concerned.  This  is 
what  we  have  done  in  the  last  few  years.  They  have,  as  I  say,  a  cer- 
tain degree  of  freedom  in  their  work  which  is  necessary;  we  allow  it, 
and  I  may  say  encourage  it,  for  it  is  absolutely  necessary  for  the  proper 
execution  of  work  of  this  class,  and  that  leads  me  to  make  this  state- 
ment. In  my  judgment  if  this  part  of  our  work  was  to  be  transferred, 
if  it  were  possible  to  transfer  the  hydrographic  part  of  the  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey  to  the  Navy,  there  would  be  a  decided  loss  of  efficiency 


94        TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

growing  out  of  the  introduction  of  purely  military  methods  and  military 
control.  Now  this,  perhaps,  you  have  heard  before  and  I  think  it  is 
quite  capable  of  proof,  and  after  referring  to  one  or  two  points,  1  will 
read  some  testimony  of  very  eminent  men  in  regard  to  it  and  give  one 
or  two  reasons  why  I  thiuk  it  would  be  the  case. 

In  the  first  place,  on  board  Coast  Survey  vessels  under  the  command 
of  a  naval  officer,  the  man-of-war  discipline  is  not  maintained,  and  it  is 
not  the  intention  that  it  should  be  maintained,  because  raan-of  war  dis- 
cipline is  not  compatible  with  the  highest  degree  of  efficiency  in  this 
sort  of  work.  I  quote  here  the  very  words  of  a  naval  officer  of  the 
highest  rank  in  the  (3oast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  where  he  says:  ^'Man- 
of  war  methods  of  discipline  will  not  work  on  the  Survey  vessels,"  and 
this  was  made  not  long  ago  in  connection  with  the  fact  that  on  one  of 
the  vessels  the  work  did  not  seem  to  be  proceeding  quite  satisfactorily, 
and  in  the  judgment  of  this  Navy  officer  himself,  not  suggested  by  me 
or  anybody  else,  it  was  due  to  a  desire  on  the  part  of  the  commander 
of  that  vessel  to  institute  purely  military  or  naval  discipline.  It  is  not 
compatible  with  the  greater  degree  of  freedom  which  is  necessary  in 
this  class  of  work.  Another  reason  is  the  great  amount  of  red  tape — I 
use  that  word  reluctantly,  but  perhaps  there  is  no  other  phrase  in  the 
English  language  that  quite  covers  it— the  greater  amount  of  red  tape 
which  is  necessary  in  any  military  or  naval  control  in  doing  work  than 
in  a  civilian  bureau. 

I  will  say  tliat  I  have  served  myself  in  a  bureau  under  military  con- 
trol. I  was  two  or  three  years  in  the  War  Department  as  a  professor 
of  electricity  in  the  Signal  Service;  therefore  I  speak  from  personal 
knowledge  of  both  civilian  and  military  service,  and  I  know  the  infinite 
difficulty  of  doing  anything  like  scientific  work  under  military  control. 
If  you  had  tried  this  you  would  fully  appreciate  my  .statement.  The 
purchase  of  little  things  Avhich  are  absolutely  necessary  to  the  carrying 
on  of  €i  piece  of  work  under  military  control — it  is  quite  difficult  under 
civil  control — is  infinitely  more  difficult.  I  might  give  hundreds  of 
examples,  but  I  will  simply  mention  two  which  came  to  my  attention, 
one  in  connection  with  the  furnishing  of  ice  for  the  Mare  Island  navy- 
yard,  which  required  150  vouchers  and  744  signatures  to  secure  the 
payment  of  that  simple  item. 

I  do  not  say  this  to  criticise  the  naval  system  of  accounts,  but  I 
mention  this  to  show  the  difficulty  you  have  in  administering  anything 
like  scientific  work  under  a  system  of  that  kind.  In  my  own  office  a 
naval  officer  told  me  within  a  few  weeks,  not  in  a  conversation  bearing 
upon  this  question,  that  he  had  known  himself  the  purchase  of  a  paper 
of  tacks  on  board  a  ship  to  require  62  signatures.  I  do  not  say  this,  as 
I  repeat,  to  criticise  the  system.  It  may  be  necessary  in  the  Navy  and 
it  may  be  necessary  in  the  Army,  but  it  is  not  necessary  in  civil  man- 
agement of  work,  and  it  is  not  done  in  civil  management  of  work.  If  a 
civil  party  or  naval  party,  with  the  present  organization,  is  doing  work 
and  they  want  a  bit  of  muslin  for  a  signal  we  go  and  purchase  it,  and 
if  the  necessities  of  the  case  do  not  allow  advertisement,  of  course  we 
do  not  advertise.  These  things  are  very  trifling  in  cost  and  we  assume 
the  object  of  the  Government  is  to  have  its  work  done  and  to  have  it 
done  economically. 

Now,  this  is  one  of  the  reas(Jns  why,  if  this  part  of  the  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey  was  thrown  into  the  Navy,  in  my  judgment,  there 
would  be  a  decided  loss  of  efficiency.  Now,  there  is  another  thing,  and 
that  is  that  subordination  of  rank  must  exist  in  any  military  establish- 
ment, without  regard  to  ability  or  experience.    And  again,  I  wish  to 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.       95 

say,  I  do  not  criticise  the  subordination  of  rank  in  a  military  estab- 
lishment. I  know  it  is  absolutely  necessary,  and  my  own  experience 
has  taught  me  that,  but  I  do  mean  to  say  it  is  not  only  unnecessary, 
but  it  injures  any  work'  of  this  kind.  Let  me  illustrate  what  I  mean 
b}^  giving  a  single  instance  in  my  own  experience.  Two  or  three  years 
ago  I  visited  and  inspected  the  work  going  on  in  Alaska,  and  1  was  on 
board  of  one  of  our  vessels.  There  were  8  or  10  naval  officers,  all 
excellent  men,  very  industrious  and  very  faithful.  I  have  never  known 
civilians  to  work  more  industriously  or  more  enthusiastically  than 
those  young  ensigns  on  board  that  boat,  and  I  was  struck,  I  must  say, 
wiih  this  fact. 

Just  as  we  were  about  to  start  out— hrst  I  will  say  we  sailed  from 
San  Francisco,  and  when  we  got  to  Burrows  Bay  they  started  out  for 
the  first  bit  of  field  work,  and  live  of  those  ensigns  went  out  and  began 
this  work.  I  inquired  of  the  cai)tain  of  the  vessel  with  regard  to  the 
character  of  those  young  men  and  what  experience  they  had.  Now, 
not  much  to  my  surprise,  I  learned  this  fact,  that  only  one  of  that  body 
of  five  young  men  had  done  any  work  of  that  kind  before,  and  he  was 
the  junior  of  all,  and  therefore  a  man  who  could  by  no  possible  means 
have  control  of  that  i)arty.  It  would  be  utterly  impossible  for  him  to 
take  charge  of  it  because  of  his  junior  rank.  He  had  been  on  the  ves- 
sel one  or  two  years  before,  I  think,  and  at  that  time  learned  the  methods 
going  on  and  was  familiar  with  them.  I  asked  the  captain  whether  he 
would  instruct  the  older  officers  in  their  duty  in  this  matter,  and  with  a 
peculiar  smile  the  executive  officer  to  whom  I  happened  to  be  talking 
at  the  time  said  if  he  was  asked  to,  "which,  I  presume,  was  quite  true, 
and  I  presume  they  did  ask  him,  and  I  think  he  did,  because  I  think 
those  young  fellows  were  all  earnest  in  the  execution  of  their  work.  I 
mention  this  as  one  of  the  difficulties  if  a  purely  military  control  had 
been  maintained  on  that  vessel.  That  young  man,  the  only  man  who 
knew  the  work,  who  had  been  in  the  field  and  knew  anything  about  it, 
was  absolutely  and  entirely  subordinate,  and  was  only  allowed  to  exe- 
cute the  orders  of  those  above  him. 

Now,  I  may  say  in  civilian  service  such  a  thing  would  not  occur. 
If  a  party  of  men  goes  into  the  field  and  one  happens  to  be  the  older 
in  the  service  and  if  he  is  a  suitable  man  to  take  charge  of  it  we  put 
him  in  charge,  and  if  he  is  not  I  have  not  hesitated  more  than  once  to 
take  a  man  who  was  younger  because  he  knew  the  work  and  put  him 
in  charge  of  the  work.  Subordination  of  rank,  therefore,  without  regard 
to  experience  and  ability,  does  not  exist  in  a  civil  organization.  I  need 
not  refer  to  the  fact  that  a  long  training  and  experience  is  needed  for  a 
proper  execution  of  work  of  this  kind.  I  am  entirely  willing  and  ready 
to  say  an  educated  naval  officer,  a  young  man  who  has  stood  well  in 
his  class,  coming  from  the  Naval  Academy  and  going  on  one  of  our 
vessels,  where  he  comes  in  contact  with  those  who  know  this  work,  I 
am  entirely  ready  and  willing  to  say  he  can  pick  it  up  in  a  compara- 
tively short  time  and  he  can  take  up  in  a  comparatively  short  time 
this  hydrographic  work  to  which  I  have  referred,  which,  without  this 
previous  training,  he  could  not,  and  after  a  year  we  will  say,  some  of 
them  indeed  after  a  few  months,  become  quite  expert  in  this  work,  and 
I  think  it  is  very  gratifying  that  this  is  the  case,  otherwise  our  work 
would  not  be  as  well  done  as  it  is,  and  I  believe  it  to  be  very  well  done; 
but  for  the  better  parts  of  this  work  a  civilian  training  and  experience 
is  certainly  very  desirable,  and  certainly  there  ought  to  be  combined 
even  if  we  admit  the  very  great  desirability  of  this  naval  contingent — 
and  I  not  only  admit  but  claim  it — there  must  be  combined  a  knowledge 


96        TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

derived  from  traditions  and  practice  that  have  been  maintained  by 
man  alter  man  and  year  after  year. 

Since  I  last  appeared  before  this  committee  I  had  occasion  to  go  to 
Kew  York  on  business,  and  while  there  examined  one  of  our  vessels 
which  was  just  undergoing  repairs,  the  steamer  Bache,  and  I  entered 
into  conversation  with  the  commanding  officer,  and  without  thinking  of 
developing  his  judgment  on  this  question  and  without  thinking  of  me, 
he  immediately  volunteered  a  statement  of  great  importance,  and  that 
was  that  he  wanted  one  or  two  more  men  and  he  wanted  to  get  men 
who  had  previously  been  engaged  in  the  service.  He  said  it  was  imj)os- 
sible  to  send  a  man  out  in  a  boat  who  was  new  in  this  work,  that  they 
were  like  children  and  could  not  do  anything  at  all,  and  he  went  on 
and  enlarged  better  than  I  could  upon  the  value  of  long  experience  in 
connection  with  the  work.  They  get  that  experience  under  the  present 
system,  and  yet  the  system  of  detail  for  only  two  or  three  years  pre- 
vents the  great  experience  and  training  which  by  tradition  and  experi- 
ence makes  a  man  a  master  in  his  profession.  Now,  the  best  hydrog- 
rapher  in  the  United  States  Kavy  to  day  (I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  this) 
is  the  present  hydrographic  inspector  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Sur- 
vey, a  gentleman  ranking  as  lieutenant-commander. 

I  think  everybody  will  admit  (I  do  not  believe  that  there  is  any  officer 
who  will  deny  that  fact)  that  he  is  the  best  hydrograper.  By  hydrogra- 
pher  I  mean  the  best  one  to  execute  the  kind  of  hydrography  to  which 
I  am  now  referring.  He  has  served  in  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey 
I  think  about  thirteen  years  altogether,  and  he  is  passionately  fond  of  the 
work  and  has  always  gotten  back  to  it  from  any  other  duty  whenever 
lie  could.  The  result  is  he  has  come  from  the  lowest  place  which  he 
occupied  at  first  and  is  now  the  ranking  officer  in  our  service.  Of 
course  he  has  the  great  advantage  of  years  of  training 

The  Chairman.  What  is  his  name! 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  His  name  is  Capt.  Moser.  There  are  men  who 
have  served  with  us  many  years,  not  quite  so  long  as  Capt.  Moser,  but 
many  who  have  served  eight  or  ten  years  in  the  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey,  and  we  valae  them  highly.  I  will  say  I  did  not  mention  this 
before,  that  this  service  makes  good  navigators  out  of  these  men,  and 
they  realize  it,  and  among  the  best  navigators  in  the  U.  S.  Navy  are 
the  men  who  served  with  us  in  this  way,  and  I  would  like  to  repeat  that 
I  believe  this  is  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  they  are  disconnected  for 
the  time  being  from  the  military  or  naval  discipline  to  which  they  are 
subjected. 

Now,  something  has  been  said  to  which  I  will  refer  only  incidentally. 
Some  assertions  have  been  made  in  regard  to  the  training  of  these  offi- 
cers to  fit  them  for  this  kind  of  work.  No  one  can  go  beyond  me,  I 
think,  in  recognizing  the  faithful  service  of  these  men  in  the  work  which 
they  do  and  which  they  are  competent  to  do,  but  I  must  say  that  for 
work  which  requires  years  and  years  of  training  it  is  clear  that  their 
education  and  training  does  not  fit  them.  For  instance,  you  are  famil- 
iar with  the  course  of  study  at  the  Naval  Academy  and  know  the 
length  of  time  they  spend  in  the  study  of  navigation  and  seamanship, 
management  of  guns,  maritime  history,  international  law,  physics, 
electricity,  and  that  kind  of  things.  Now,  there  is  also  some  surveying 
in  their  course,  and  that  is  the  reason  why  they  learn  how  to  use  the 
sextant  and  why  they  pick  it  up  so  quickly  when  they  come  to  us,  but 
I  submit  that  all  those  other  things  do  not  especially  fit  them  for  the 
work  which  the  civilian  ^branch  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  must 
do  in  connection  with  naval  work. 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.        97 

If  it  did  iit  them  I  should  criticise  the  course  of  the  Naval  Academy 
as  beiiif?  a  bad  course,  because  it  is  not  iutended  to  fit  them  for  that; 
it  is  intended  to  make  them  seamen  and  navigators,  men  wlio  can  tight 
ships  and  that  land  of  tiling,  and  it  is  no  disparagement  of  it  to  declare 
that  it  does  not  necessarily  prepare  men  for  work  of  this  class.  There 
is  training  which  is  just  as  essential  and  necessary  to  this  work  as  the 
work  of  a  physician  is  to  that  of  a  nurse,  I  will  say,  or  even  more  than 
that.  I  may  remark  that  these  naval  officers  study  chemistry,  but  they 
do  not  pretend  to  be  chemists,  and  they  study  law,  as  we  all  know,  but 
they  do  not  pretend  to  be  lawyers.  8till,  in  case  of  emergency,  they 
can  do  a  little  chemistry  and  they  can  do  a  little  international  law,  and 
sometimes  very  well  and  happily,  but  after  all  it  is  not  the  kind  of 
training  which  fits  them  for  the  work  which  they  have  before  them. 

Now,  you  will  see  I  am  leading  to  the  supposition  that  the  survey  of 
the  coast  should  not  be  put  under  the  hands  of  naval  officers.  I  will 
explain.  It  can  not  safely  be  placed  there  without  injury  to  the  work. 
It  has  been  asserted  that  they  have  already  done  this  work.  You  will 
remember  that  I  showed  you  a  survey  of  the  coast,  and  that  alone 
required  triangulation,  magnetic  work,  tidal  work,  and,  if  it  is  well 
done,  also  physical  hydrography;  generally  it  requires  all  of  those 
things.  I  mean  to  explain,  then,  that  there  are  certain  of  these,  other 
than  the  mere  hydrography  which  they  now  do  very  well,  that  the  naval 
training  does  not  fit  them  for,  and  under  the  system  we  have  of  details 
it  would  not  be  compatible,  and  therefore  some  scheme  must  be  main- 
tained for  supi3orting  that  class  of  work. 

Mr.  Enloe  Who  does  that  class  of  work  when  they  make  surveys 
elsewhere  than  on  our  own  coast? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  am  glad  you  mentioned  that.  They  have  made 
surveys  elsewhere  than  on  our  own  coast,  where  they  have  done  that 
class  of  work,  and  this  very  work  that  they  have  done  is  the  argument 
which  I  shall  be  pleased  to  submit  to  you  as  evidence  of  what  I  say. 
I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  that  work  is  not  as  good  as  could  have  been 
done  under  the  circumstances,  but  it  speaks  for  itself.  It  has  been 
published  and  I  will  submit  it  to  you,  and  I  will  be  glad  to  have  you 
consult  anybody  who  ought  to  be  considered  as  authority  upon  this  in 
regard  to  the  character  of  that  work.  It  is  better  than  none,  and  I  may 
say  in  many  respects  it  is  very  good,  and  some  of  the  work  is  doubt- 
less good.  They  have  been  doing  that  class  of  work  in  Alaska  and 
much  of  it  is  very  good.  The  trouble  is,  it  does  not  hitch  together; 
the  parts  are  disjointed,  whereas  they  ought  to  join.  I  do  not  mean 
by  this  to  disj^arage  our  colleagues,  and  I  would  not  have  submitted 
that  observation  except  that  it  was  drawn  from  me.  In  other  words, 
while  we  regard  it  as  work  useful  and  desirable,  it  is  not  the  kind  of 
work  the  Government  wants  and  not  the  kind  of  work  the  Government 
should  have,  and  is  not  satisfactory. 

The  Chairman.  Eight  there  let  me  ask  you  a  question.  How  is  the 
work  on  the  Mexican  coast;  have  you  looked  into  that? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  That  is  the  very  example  I  have  in  my  mind. 

The  Chairman.  How  about  the  charts  around  Roncador  Reef! 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  do  not  know  anything  about  that;  I  am  glad 
to  say  we  have  no  responsibility  for  Roncador  Reei:\  as  it  is  not  in  our 
bailiwick.  I  will  say — you  draw  it  from  me  unwillingly — its  responsi- 
bility rests  upon  an  office  which  published  a  chart  more  than  50  years 
old  of  that  reef.  That  reef  does  not  belong  to  this  country,  and  we 
have  nothing  to  do  with  it. 
4561 7 


98        TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

The  Chairman.  I  did  not  know  but  wliat  you  had  been  looking  at 
the  chart? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  We  are  not  interested  in  those  charts,  and  we 
are  not  in  the  slightest  degree  responsible  for  them;  but  tlie  point  I 
was  making  is  by  combination 

Mr.  Enloe.  Before  going  from  that  I  would  like  to  ask  if  the  Navy 
Department  is  responsible! 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  No,  sir,  I  think  not;  but  I  will  say  this,  that  I 
have  heard  naval  officers  say  it  was,  but  I  do  not  say  so  myself. 

The  Chairman.  I  would  like  to  ask  another  question  right  there.  I 
believe  it  is  a  fact  the  Navy  Department  used  British  charts  when 
they  were  navigating  the  Kearsargef 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  British  charts  of  Koncador  lieef. 

The  Chairman.  Were  those  charts  drawn  up  under  the  manage- 
ment of  the  British  naval  department  or  the  Coast  Survey,  the  same 
as  those  of  which  you  have  been  si)eaking'? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Mr.  Chairman,  I  have  got  that  whole  subject, 
and  I  am  going  to  tell  you  before  I  get  through  just  how  that  work  is 
done  in  every  country. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  Do  you  mean  to  say  the  chart  by  which  the 
Kearsarge  was  sailed  was  50  years  old  ? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  So  I  am  told  by  naval  officers.  I  know  that  the 
subject  has  been  much  talked  about,  and  I  have  understood  those  charts 
were  50  years  old.  That  is  my  understanding,  but  I  can  not  say  it  was 
true  from  my  own  knowledge;  but  still  I  think  in  regard  to  Eoncador 
Reef  there  is  a  pretty  strong  belief  the  reef  may  be  out  of  the  way 
from  the  position  on  the  chart,  but  I  have  not  gone  into  that  profes- 
sionally in  any  way.  I  mean  to  maintain  tliis,  that  when  work  has  been 
done  in  which  the  naval  officers  have  undertaken  to  combine  with  the 
hydrography  the  necessary  triangulation,  toi)ography,  and  magnetics, 
and  so  on,  which,  as  far  as  1  am  aware,  they  have  never  done  except  on 
the  coast  of  Mexico,  the  result  has  been  far  below  the  standard 
accepted  by  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey. 

Triangulation  and  topography  have  been  combined  to  a  certain  extent 
in  Alaska  and  it  has  not  been  successful.  It  has  been  something,  much 
better  than  nothing,  and  in  Alaska  we  are  glad  to  avail  ourselves  of 
the  possibility  of  getting  these  charts  out  in  that  way,  and  I  may  say 
this  was  our  plan,  to  ask  naval  officers  to  do  this  class  of  work,  but  we 
have  always  regarded  it  as  a  reconnoissance  and  preliminary  survey 
which  would  furnish  chaits  fairly  accurate  which  would  be  better  than 
no  charts  or  inaccurate  charts.  This  is  my  judgment  in  regard  to  that 
matter. 

I  wish  to  refer  to  some  points  about  the  present  arrangement.  I 
consider  it  a  most  adndrable  one.  It  resulted  after  a  careful  study  of 
the  whole  question  by  a  few  civilians  and  a  majority  of  naval  and  mili- 
tary officers,  as  I  reierred  to  in  my  first  hearing,  and  it  has  gone  on  up 
to  the  present  time  with  the  result  of  producing  charts  the  accuracy 
and  precision  of  which  have  commanded  the  admiration  ot  the  world, 
and  I  do  not  see,  therefoie,  why  any  change  should  be  made;  and  I  do 
believe  that  if  the  change  is  made,  it  would  prove  a  very  serious  detri- 
ment to  the  accuracy  and  precision  of  those  charts.  I  do  not  see  why 
the  present  system  can  not  continue — a  system  which  I  certainly  believe 
it  would  be  valuable  to  continue. 

Now,  I  wish  to  refer  for  a  moment  to  the  other  side  of  the  bill  which 
speaks  of  the  proposed  transfer  of  what  might  be  left — whatever  that 
might  be,  it  is  a  little  difficult  to  say  what  it  would  be — over  to  the 


TRANSFER    OF    COAST    AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY.  99 

Geological  Survey.  The  difficulty  of  determining  what  would  be  left  I 
wish  to  refer  to  a  little  later  on,  but  with  reference  to  the  Geological 
Survey  it  has  been  asserted  once  or  twice  that  the  same  work  has  been 
duplicated  by  that  Bureau  and  the  Coast  Survey,  and  that  similar 
duplication  has  been  often  found  to  have  been  made  by  the  Hydro- 
graphic  Office  and  the  Coast  Survey. 

1  can  not  understand  how  such  a  statement  can  be  made.  There  is 
no  duplication  «f  the  work  in  the  two  offices,  in  my  judgment.  The 
Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  itself  is  restricted  by  law  to  the  survey  of 
the  coast  of  the  United  States  for  the  purpose  of  preparing  charts  of 
that  coast;  the  Hydrographic  Office  takes  the  charts  of  the  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey,  and  also  prepares  charts  of  the  lest  of  the  world  for 
the  use  of  the  Navy  of  the  United  States.  In  other  words,  the  great 
commerce  of  the  United  States  is  supplied  by  the  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey  with  charts  of  the  coast  of  the  United  States,  and  the  duty  of 
the  Hydrographic  Office  is  to  supply  the  Navy  with  charts  of  the  rest 
of  the  world,  which  it  compiles  from  English,  French,  Italian,  and 
other  surveys,  and  which  it  produces  in  suiiHcient  number  to  make  this 
distribution,  which  is  a  very  proper  function ol  that  office;  and  I  would 
like  to  say  the  Hydrographic  Office  has  extended  its  functions  beyond 
that  in  the  introduction  of  the  meteorological  feature,  which  I  consider 
admirable,  and  I  consider  the  Hydrographic  Office  has  done  itself  great 
honor  in  the  extension  of  the  pilot-chart  feature  and  that  sort  of  thing, 
but  nevertheless  1  maintain  tliMt  between  the  Hydrographic  Office  of 
the  Navy  and  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  and  they  will  concur  in 
what  I  say,  there  is  no  duplication  of  work.  If  there  has  been  any,  it 
is  merely  accidental  in  a  little  area,  and  was  not  intentional  at  all. 

It  has  been  maintained  that  in  the  case  of  the  Geological  Survey  and 
the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  there  is  also  a  duplication  of  work. 
That  is  not  true.  I  say  boldly  that  is  not  true,  and  the  only  instance 
of  duplication  of  work  that  I  know  was  purely  accidental,  and  which 
came  from  a  resurvey  of  a  small  part  of  the  coast  of  Massachusetts, 
that  is,  a  small  area,  I  think  25  miles  long  and  8  miles  wide.  The 
Geological  Survey  had  previously  gone  over  that  as  a  part  of  the  map 
of  Massachusetts,  but  as  the  officers  of  that  Survey  will  tell  you  every 
bit  of  the  work  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  every  triangulation 
point,  every  base  line,  every  bit  of  topography,  is  utilized  and  copied 
by  the  Geological  Survey.  They  take  this  from  our  charts,  and  they  will 
universally  admit  they  are  much  more  accurate  and  much  more  i)recise 
than  their  own  work.  I  am  not  criticising  my  colleagues  of  the  Geo- 
logical Survey;  our  relations  have  been  exceedingly  pleasant,  and  we 
have  cooperated  wherever  possible  in  every  manner  with  each  other, 
and  they  will  not  misunderstand  me  when  I  say  that  their  work,  as  far 
as  toi)ography  and  triangulation  and  all  mensuration  work  is  concerned, 
resembles  ours  very  imperfectly  indeed,  being  of  a  very  much  less  degree 
of  precision. 

The  Chairman.  Is  that  the  case  in  the  survey  of  the  coast  of  Massa- 
chusetts 1 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Yes,  sir;  I  can  show  you  that,  Mr.  Chairman, 
if  you  would  like  to  see  it. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Is  that  due  to  the  fact  that  you  continue  the  survey  to 
a  degree  of  refinement  which  the  Geological  Survey  does  not? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Yes,  sir;  they  have  a  very  much  lower  standard 
than  we  have,  though  I  am  not  quarreling  with  their  standard.  It  is  a 
question  for  the  Geological  Survey  to  determine  what  kind  of  a  survey 
is  good  lor  geological  purposes,  and  that  is  their  object  and  not  ours 


100      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

If  they  be] i eve  topography  which  costs  $2,  $4,  $5,  or  $10  per  square 
mile  is  sufficient  for  geological  purposes,  that  is  all  right;  I  have  no 
dispute  with  them;  but  when  they  say  it  is  sufficient  for  purposes  of 
navigation  and  defense,  which  they  have  never  said,  I  say  they  are 
wrong,  and  it  can  be  proved  they  are  wrong.  The  transfer  of  this  work 
to  the  Geological  Survey,  I  say,  would  be  entirely  iinprCper  and  not  in 
accord  and  not  fitted  for  the  work  of  that  Bureau,  and  I  would  like  to 
say  it  is  so  regarded  by  the  great  majority  of  the  geologists  of  the  coun- 
try, and  I  think  the  geologists  of  the  country  are  men  whose  judgment 
ought  to  be  consulted  on  this  question.  If  there  was  appropriateness 
and  fitness  of  this  combination,  the  geologists  might  be  expected  to  be 
rather  favorably  inclined  and  be  ])rejudiced  in  favor  of  the  transfer  work 
to  their  own  bureau  than  otherwise. 

The  Chairman.  Prof.  Mendenhall,  the  hour  for  the  meeting  of  the 
House  has  arrived,  and  if  you  will  excuse  us  we  will  adjourn  now. 

Mr.  Money.  Before  you  leave  I  would  like  to  ask,  do  you  under- 
stand the  Hydrographic  Office  sup[)lies  charts  and  does  not  make 
hydrographic  charts,  but  simply  supplies  them? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  It  does  not  make  the  United  States  charts  at 
all.  We  furnish  them  to  the  Hydrographic  Office  and  they  supply  them 
to  the  Navy.  The  foreign  charts  the  Hydrographic  Office  copies,  but 
it  does  not  copy  ours  because  we  make  them  and  furnish  them. 

Mr.  Money.  It  copies  the  foreign  charts  and  supplies  those  you 
make? 

The  Chairman.  It  copies  the  foreign  and  supplies  those  like  the 
Mexican  coast,  for  instance. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  That  is  a  single  instance. 

Mr.  Money.  Let  me  ask  you  a  question  which  occurred  early  in  your 
remarks;  do  I  understand  you  to  say  that  men  of  less  efficiency  by  the 
transfer  of  the  bureau  would  be  substituted  and 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  That  was  one  feature. 
,   Mr.  Money.  I  understood  you  to  say  that  was  the  important  feature. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  say  it  is  one  of  importance.  I  say  it  is  one  of 
the  great  difficulties  in  the  way.  Now,  we  get  all  the  benefits  which 
come  from  the  naval  attachment.  We  get  now,  under  the  present  sys- 
tem, all  the  benefits  which  come  from  the  civilian  attachment,  and  if 
you  break  up  the  present  system  you  have  lost  it,  and  a  very  important 
feature. 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  would  like  to  ask  something  in  regard  to  the  cost  of 
this  work.  I  would  like  to  know  in  that  connection  what  is  the  cost  of 
the  coast  and  geodetic  work  in  the  interior  when  it  is  complete,  per 
square  mile. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Well,  that  is  a  very  large  question.  You  would 
first  have  to  find  out  what  is  meant  by  coast  survey  work. 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  mean  the  work  you  are  doing. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  We  are  not  doing  any  topographical  work  in 
the  interior — none  at  all.  We  have  worked  generally  through  State 
surveys;  triangulation  points  are  being  furnished  to  State  surveys,  but 
we  have  no  topogiaphical  work  done  under  our  direction. 

Mr.  Enloe.  This  is  confined  to  the  shore  line? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  It  is  confined  to  the  coast,  and  our  interior 
work  is  triangulation,  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  ev^ery  State  to  do 
topographical  work. 

Mr.  Enloe.  What  does  that  triangulation  work  cost  per  square  mile 
when  completed? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.   That  is  dependent  entirely  upon  what  you 


TRANSFER  OB^  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.       101 

make  it.  As  I  said  the  other  day,  the  work  which  has  been  done  is 
very  small,  and,  in  my  judgment,  very  much  more  must  be  done  in 
time,  but  I  do  not  expect  it  to  be  done  for  a  hundred  years,  conse- 
quently I  do  not  expect  to  see  it. 

Mr.  Geissenhaner.  Tlie  statement  was  made  here  the  other  day 
that  it  cost  $000  per  square  mile. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  That  is  absurd. 

Mr.  Enloe.  It  was  shown  by  a  former  investigation  that  it  cost  $100 
per  square  mile. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Some  does  cost  that  much.  This  piece  I  spoke 
of  along  the  coast  of  Massachusetts;  I  sent  a  young  man,  one  of  my 
most  expert  assistants,  to  do  that,  and  it  was  done  at  a  cost  of  $38  per 
square  mile.  The  survey  of  the  District  here  was  made,  not  under  an 
appropriation  of  the  Coast  and  Ueodetic  Survey,  but  under  the  appro- 
priation for  the  District  Commissioners,  and  officers  of  the  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey  were  detailed  to  make  a  survey  of  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia and  it  was  done,  and  it  is  the  finest  piece  of  work  except  the 
great  ordnance  survey  of  Great  Britain,  and  it  cost  a  large  sum  of 
money,  but  it  was  made  for  the  use  of  the  District  engineers  and  they 
will  tell  you  as  to  its  accuracy.  The  contour  lines  are  run  for  every  5 
feet. 

Mr.  Enloe.  What  was  the  cost  of  that  work? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  have  not  calculated  what  the  cost  was  per 
mile.  ! 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  This  was  for  the  purpose  of  running  water 
mains? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  A  topograpical  survey  might  cost  $7,000  or 
$8,000  per  square  mile.  I  understand  in  the  city  of  Baltimore  they 
are  making  a  topographical  survey  and  $125,000  has  been  appropri- 
ated by  the  city. 

Mr.  Geissenhatner.  An  ordinary  survey  has  no  such  relations  as 
that? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  No,  sir. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Does  the  triangulation  which  you  are  doing  where  you 
carry  it  to  the  tertiary  stage  cost  as  much  as  $100  per  square  mile? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  really  could  not  answer  that,  but  I  think  much 
less  than  that. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Will  you  give  us  the  information? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  You  know  that  is  a  difficult  thing  to  answer, 
because  our  tertiary  triangulation  has  thus  far  extended  along  the  rim 
of  the  coast,  and  it  is  combined,  therefore,  with  all  the  other  operations 
in  the  Coast  Survey,  which  are  done  by  the  same  officers  and  done  at 
the  same  time,  and  therefore  it  is  impossible  to  separate  that  from  the 
cost  of  til e  topographical  survey. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Could  you  furnish  the  committee  with  the  estimated 
cost  of  the  tertiary  triangulation  separate  and  apart  from  any  other? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  We  can  approximate  it,  but  we  can  not  bring 
it  down  exactly. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  If  I  understand  you  correctly  the  cost  depends 
upon  the  minuteness  of  detail? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Absolutely.  Topography  is  like  a  piece  of 
furniture.  You  can  get  a  table  for  $1.25  or  you  can  pay  $1,000  for  it. 
It  is  usually  worth  what  you  pay  for  it,  if  topography  is  honestly  done, 
and  that  is  what  we  maintain  about  ours — it  is  worth  what  it  costs. 

Thereupon  the  committee  adjourned,  to  meet  on  Tuesday,  May  29, 
1894. 


102       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 


Committee  on  Naval  Affairs, 

Tuesday^  May  29^  1894, 
The  Committee  ou  Naval  Affairs  this  day  met,  Hon.  Amos  J.  Cum- 
miiigs  in  tlie  chair. 

The  Chairman.  Prof.  Meudenhall,  if  you  will  now  proceed  we  are 
ready  to  hear  you. 


STATEMENT  OF  PROF.  T.  C.  MENDENHALL— Continued. 

Prof.  Mendenhall  then  addressed  the  committee.  He  said: 
Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Committee:  At  the  last 
hearing  I  spoke  ol  the  objection  to  transferring  a  portion  of  the  Coast 
Survey  to  tlie  Navy  Department  based  upon  the  difficulties  of  execut- 
ing anything  like  scientific  work  or  work  of  ijrecision  of  this  character 
under  military  regime.  I  refer  to  that  this  morning  only  that  I  may 
read  a  brief  selection  whicli  I  eutended  to  read  on  that  day  but  which 
I  overlooked.  This  is  a  statement  quoted  from  the  minority  report  of 
the  joint  commission  reporting  on  the  organization  of  certain  scientific 
bureaus  in  188G,  and  the  first  quotation  is  from  the  rei>ort  of  the  Sec- 
retary of  War.  He  was  speaking  of  the  Weather  Bureau  in  connection 
with  the  military  affairs,  and  he  says : 

It  must  depend  npou  tlie  efforts  of  men  who  are  engaged  in  technical  study,  and 
any  officer  who  takes  part  in  its  work  must  be  valuable  for  his  studious  and  scien- 
tific labor  rather  than  for  his  military  ability  and  his  soldierly  qualities. 

To  that  is  added  that  of  the  chairman  of  the  minority  committee, 
that  is  the  head  of  the  minority,  Mr.  Herbert,  I  believe,  who  is  now 
Secretary  of  the  Navy: 

As  a  question  of  proper  civil  administration  it  seems  clear  to  the  commission,  as 
appears  in  the  general  report,  that  it  is  not  good  government  to  put  a  branch  of  the 
service  that  has  no  necessary  relations  to  military  affairs  under  the  regimen  of  a 
military  establishment  and  under  military  organization  and  command. 

This  was  agreed  to,  1  will  say,  not  only  in  the  minority  report,  but  by 
the  ma.jority,  but  it  was  put  in  the  minority  report.  Also  the  following 
from  the  same  report  made  by  Mr.  Herbert,  now  the  honorable  Secretary 
of  the  Navy : 

It  is  not  consistent  with  the  spirit  of  our  Government  that  the  military  should 
dominate  the  civil  x)ower  in  any  case  where  such  a  dangerous  course  of  administra- 
tion can  be  avoided.  If  we  admit  this  principle  as  a  necessity  of  the  service  in  the 
quiet  and  uneventful  conduct  of  the  scientific  studies  of  the  weather,  we  shall  be 
logically  forced  to  the  policy  of  enlisting  all  the  active  force  of  the  other  and  like 
branches  ot  the  civil  service  we  have  alluded  to,  and  could  scarcely  avoid  the  enlist- 
ment in  the  Army  of  all  de])uty  marshals  and  whatever  constabulary  forces  that  may 
be  needed  for  a  faithful  and  efficient  execution  of  the  laws. 

There  is  also  a  good  deal  more  of  that  same  character.  I  refer  to 
this,  and  would  like  to  remark,  although  it  was  specifically  written  and 
stated  in  refeience  to  the  Weather  Bureau  that  it  is  equally  applicable 
to  the  question  now  under  consideration,  for  the  reason  that  the  Weather 
Bureau  maintains,  as  you  all  know,  establishments  along  the  seacoast 
for  the  purpose  of  giving  warning  signals  to  mariners  and  that  kind  of 
thing.  In  other  words,  it  is  related  also  to  commerce,  and  to  the  opera- 
tions of  the  Navy,  and  to  the  same  reasoning  as  in  that  case  would  seem 
to  apply  to  the  present  question. 

Then  just  at  the  close  of  my  last  hearing  I  was  referring  to  the  propo- 
sition to  transfer  a  part  of  this  Survey  to  the  Geological  Survey,  and  I 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      103 

was  speaking  of  the  fact  that  such  a  step  was  inappropriate,  improper, 
and  against  the  judgment  of  the  geologists  of  the  country.  I  could 
enlarge  upon  that  to  any  extent.  The  geologists  of  the  country,  it'  a 
census  was  to  be  taken  of  their  opinion  to-day,  would  be  found  to  be 
practically  unanimous  agaiUvSt  such  a  proposition  as  this,  for  the  reason 
that  they  believe,  and  have  long  believed,  that  the  operations  of  the 
Geological  Survey  should  be  restricted  to  )>urely  geological  work  to  a 
very  much  greater  degree  than  it  is  at  the  present  time. 

On  the  first  day  this  question  was  discussed  before  the  committee  I 
was  not  present  myself,  but  I  learned  afterwards,  what  I  did  not  know 
before,  that  one  of  the  leading  geologists  of  the  country  appeared  before 
the  committee  and  spoke  on  this  quCvStion.  1  allude  to  Prof.  Williams, 
of  Johns  Hopkins  University,  one  of  the  first  authorities  we  have.  I 
did  not  know  that  Prof.  Williams  knew  anything  of  this  matter  until 
after  he  had  made  his  address  before  ihis  committee.  I  learned  after- 
wards what  he  said,  and  I  wish  to  remind  you  that  he  told  you  he  had 
himself  been  for  many  years  practically  an  employe  of  the  Geological 
Survey — that  is,  he  spent  a  good  deal  of  his  time  in  their  service  and 
received  compensation  from  them,  and  in  spite  of  that  fact  he  recog- 
nizes and  always  has  recognized  the  inappropriateness  of  transferring 
the  survey  work  of  the  country  to  that  bureau.  While  on  that  subject  I 
will  read,  in  addition,  a  letter  which  has  come  into  my  possession, 
or  rather  a  copy  which  has  come  into  my  possession,  which  was 
addressed  very  recently  to  a  member  of  Congress  from  one  of  the 
leading  geologists  of  this  country,  the  professor  of  geology  in  the 
Leland  Stanford  University,  who  was  for  a  long  time  the  State  geolo- 
gist of  Arkansas,  and  who  has  a  national  reputation,  having  been 
employed  in  the  international  survey  in  Brazil.  I  refer  to  Prof.  Bran- 
ner.  This  is  addressed  to  a  Member  of  Congress,  and  a  copy  has  been 
handed  to  me: 

My  Dear  Sir:  It  lias  just  come  to  my  knowledge  that  an  effort  is  bein<>:  made  in 
Congress  to  do  away  witli  the  U.  S.  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  as  it  now  exists  (Enloe 
bill).  Inasmuch  as  I  was  not  long  ago  one  of  your  constituents,  I  beg  to  express  to 
you,  and  through  you  to  the  other  Congressmen  from  Arkansas,  an  opinion  inregard 
ibo  the  Coast  Survey,  based  upon  many  years'  knowledge  of  the  work  and  results. 

I  should  say  at  tlie  outset  that  I  am  not,  and  never  have  been  and  never  expect  to 
be,  connected  wfth  the  Coast  Survey  in  auy  capacity  whatever,  that  I  write  to  you 
entirely  unsolicited,  and  that  my  views  are  simply  those  of  an  imlependent  outsider 
who  takes  pride  in  all  good  scientific  work  done  in  our  country,  and  who  wishes  to 
see  only  right  and  high  standards  of  work  maintained. 

I  don't  need  to  call  your  attention  to  the  great  val^eof  the  work  of  the  Coast  Sur- 
vey; indeed,  I  don't  suppose  that  even  those  who  want  to  have  it  abolished  doubt 
that  its  work  is  essential  to  every  civilized  government.  During  the  six  years  that 
I  was  State  geologist  of  Arkansas  1  had  occasion  to  use  the  geodetic  work  done  by 
the  Coast  Survey  along  the  Mississippi  River  and  in  the  State  of  Arkansas.  That 
work  was  not  only  indispensable  to  the  best  interests  of  that  State,  but  I  turned  to 
it  always  with  a  degree  of  confidence  that  I  never  felt  in  that  of  any  other  bureau 
doing  similar  work. 

The  complaint  has  been  made,  and  I  presume  will  be  made  on  this  occasion,  that 
the  Coast  Survey  is  slow.  Hut  I  need  not  remind  you  that  in  mathematical  work 
demanding  the  highest  degree  of  accuracy,  rapidity  is  dangerous,  if  it  is  not  alto- 
gether out  of  the  question. 

It  has  been  complaiued  also  that  tbe  topographical  work  done  by  the  Coast  Survey 
is  unnecessarily  expensive.  I  beg  to  tell  you  that  for  twelve  years  I  have  made  topo- 
graphic work  a  special  study  and  that  for  two  years  I  worked  at  it  constantly.  I  am 
familiar  with  the  methods  used  by  the  various  Government  bureaus  in  doing  topo- 
graj)hic  work  and  with  other  methods  that  they  do  not  use,  and  I  can  assure  you  in 
the  most  positive  terms  that  with  the  degree  of  accuracy  an  I  detail  attained  by  the 
Coast  Survey  it  is  impossible  to  do  the  work  more  cheaply.  That  topographic  work 
can  be  done  at  from  $2  to  $10  a  square  mile  is  quite  true;  indeed,  1  have  (h)ne  it  myself 
at  $1  a  square  mile,  but  good  work— such  as  the  ('oast  Survey  does— can  not  be  done 
in  a  country  of  average  relief  for  any  such  price  by  any  method  in  existence  or 


104      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

likely  ever  to  be  in  existence.    If  good  work  costs  money,  it  is  no  more  than  other 
good  tilings  cost. 

Another  point  worthy  of  attention  is  that  the  training  of  the  assistants  doing  the 
Coast  Snrvey  work  is  such  that  there  are  comparatively  few  men  in  the  country  who 
are  really  qualiiied  by  experience  to  carry  it  on  successfully.  To  change  these  men 
would  involve  the  loss  to  the  people  of  the  very  valuable  experience  of  these  trained 
men  and  would  demoralize  this  important  service  temporal  ily  if  not  permanently. 
The  Coast  Survey  has  been  the  Bureau,  above  all  oth'  rs,  in  which  the  scientitic  men 
of  the  country  have  all  along  felt  that  they  could  rely  with  confidence.  Its  work  is 
the  tirst  pride  of  every  American  citizen,  one  that  commands  the  attention  and  admi- 
ration of  all  civilized  nations.  To  do  away  with  it  would  be  nothing  less  than  a 
calamity. 

Tliis  is  the  liiii^uage,  Mr.  Ohairinaii,  of  one  of  the  leading  geologists 
of  the  country,  and  reflects,  I  think,  that  of  many  other  gentlemen 
belonging  to  the  same  profession,  and  I  am  not  doing  wrong  when  I  say 
that  within  the  last  week  there  has  come  to  my  knowledge,  and  in  fact 
I  have  at  my  oflice  a  copy,  which  came  to  me  quite  unexpectedly,  as  I  was 
not  aware  of  its  existence  before,  a  petition  which  is  now  being  signed 
by  many  of  the  leading  geologists  of  the  country  outside  of  the  Govern- 
ment service  urging  and  requesting  that  the  Geological  Survey  in  the 
future  should  be  restricted  to  geological  work,  and  the  survey  part  of 
the  work,  which  has  occupied  so  much  of  its  attention  for  many  years, 
should  not  be  continued  in  the  way  in  which  it  is  now  carried  on.  I 
have  no  controversy  with  the  Geological  Survey  over  this  matter.  As 
I  stated,  the  Coast  Survey  has  never  been  grasping  in  its  desires  or 
tendencies  and  1  simply  mention  tliis  matter  so  as  to  give  you  the  judg- 
ment of  the  geologists,  and  they  are  certainly  entitled  to  an  opinion  in 
reference  to  the  effect  of  such  a  transfer  as  this  upon  the  work  of  the 
Geological  Survey. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Will  you  allow  me  to  ask  you  there,  do  they  contemplate 
transferring  the  Survey  to  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  later"? 
.  Prof.  Mendeniiall.  I  do  not  think  that  matter  is  covered  by  the 
petition.  I  will  say  in  reference  to  that,  about  15  years  ago  the  ques- 
tion of  the  whole  organization  of  the  surveys  of  the  country  came  up 
and  was  referred  by  the  then  Govern]:  en t  authorities,  the  then  Sec- 
retary of  the  Treasury  and  Secretary  of  the  Kavy,  to  the  National 
Academy  of  Sciences,  and  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences  appointed 
a  committee  consisting  of  the  most  able  men  of  the  country  to  discuss 
the  question.  In  the  first  place,  the  chairman  of  this  committee  was 
the  president  of  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences.  I  refer  to  Prof. 
Marsh,  of  Yale,  who  was  himself  employed  by  the  Geological  Survey; 
and  they  made  a  report  in  which  they  unanimously  agreed  that  the 
whole  question  of  the  surveys  of  the  United  States  should  be  combined 
under  an  organization  which  would  have  to  be  formed  out  of  the  Coast 
Survey,  and  the  name  which  they  proposed  to  give  this  organization 
was  '-The  Coast  and  Interior  Survey."  They  proposed  also  to  combine 
the  land  surveys — that  is,  to  have  the  land  surveys  done  under  the 
direction  of  this  Bureau — and  I  think  any  one  who  has  ever  investigated 
that  great  plan  will  agree  with  what  a  geologist  ot  the  Geological  Sur- 
vey told  me  recently.  He  said  the  Academy  plan  is  recognized  as  the 
ideal  thing  in  the  organization  of  the  Survey  of  the  United  States;  and  I 
would  like  to  call  the  attention  of  the  gentlemen  of  the  committee  who 
wish  to  pursue  this  phase  of  the  question  to  the  report  of  the  National 
Academy  of  Sciences,  which  is  a  public  document  and  is  easily  acces- 
sible. Whether  this  question  is  touched  upon  in  this  recent  movement 
1  am  sure  I  am  not  able  to  say. 

Now,  I  want  to  refer  to  a  few  other  diflBculties  which,  in  my  judgment, 
would  result  in  a  less  degree  of  efficiency  in  the  survey  if  it  was  divided 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      105 

as  proposed.  One  of  the  inost  important  would  be,  still  referring  to 
the  transfer  of  a  i)art  to  the  Geological  Survey,  I  can  not  but  feel,  and 
I  think  everyorje  leels,  that  it  would  result  in  a  very  decided  lowering 
of  the  standard  of  the  work.  That  is,  it  could  not  and  would  not  be 
kept  up  to  that  standard  which  has  always  been  maintained,  as  I  think 
we  are  all  ready  to  concede,  and  which  receives  the  x>iaise  of  all  of 
those  who  are  competent  to  judge.  Then  a  very  serious  difficulty  to 
which  1  would  like  to  refer  would  be  in  the  matter  of  a  division  of  the 
records  of  the  Bureau.  That  is  a  question  which  is  certainly  a  very 
important  one.  In  our  archives  we  have  over  at  the  Coast  and  Geo- 
detic Survey — and  you  will  pardon  me,  gentlemen,  if  I  stop  hereto  say 
that  it  would  afford  me  great  gratification,  and  I  am  sure  it  would  our 
ofiicers  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  to  have  the  gentlemen  of  this 
committe,  either  collectively  or  individually,  visit  the  office  of  the  Coast 
Survey  and  examine  the  ox)erations. 

I  have  had  little  to  say  here  about  the  operations  of  the  Office,  and  I 
have  x)urposely  passed  over  that  be3ause  they  are  to  some  extent  sim- 
ilar to  tiie  ordinary  office  operations,  but  in  many  instances  they  are 
very  different,  and  it  would  give  us  a  great  deal  of  pleasure  for  you 
individually  or  collectively  to  see  the  work  going  on  in  the  Office  of 
the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  and  I  think  if  you  can  find  leisure  to 
take  half  an  hour  or  an  hour  to  examine  the  work  before  you  decide  to 
act  upon  the  bill  either  one  way  or  another,  it  would  be  certainly  a 
very  reasonable  thing  to  expect  and  to  ask.  If  you  should  do  that  you 
w^ould  find  in  a  fireproof  building  there,  one-third  of  what  is  known  as 
theButler  Building,  we  have  stored,  and  have  had  stored  for  many  years, 
an  enormous  accumulation  of  material  gathered  by  this  Survey.  We 
have  tliere  original  sheets  50  or  00  years  old,  and  recoid  books  50  or  60 
years  old.    All  of  the  past  history  of  the  work  is  there. 

Now,  of  course,  that  is  almost  invaluable  and  it  would  be  difficult  to 
express  the  value  in  dollars  and  cents  any  way,  because  we  are  con- 
stantly called  upon  to  refer  to  these  records  in  order  to  find  out  the 
changes  which  have  taken  place — for  instance,  the  secular  change  in  the 
magnetic  forces — and  we  regard  them"  as  being  invaluable.  A  division 
of  those  records  in  the  way  that  is  proposed  would  be  almost  practi- 
cally impossible.  I  have  thought  of  that  a  good  deal.  For  instance, 
let  us  imagine  fbr  a  moment  the  division  which  is  proposed  by  this  bill 
was  made,  and  suppose  the  naval  party  was  to  be  directed  by  the 
Superintendent,  whoever  he  may  be,  or  the  chief  hydrographer,  whoever 
he  might  be,  to  go  out  and  make  a  survey  of  the  harbor.  Now,  the 
first  step  necessarily  w^ould  be  to  have  the  naval  officers  obtain  what  is 
called  the  projection  sheet,  with  triangulation  points  and  all  than  kind 
of  thing.  Now,  that  is  a  necessary  part  of  what  might  be  called  the 
interior  work  of  the  Coast  Survey,  the  triangulation  part  of  the  Coast 
Survey.  If  you  should  transfer  to  the  Navy  all  the  records  necessary 
to  enable  them  to  execute  this  workyou  would  take  away  from  the  Geo- 
logical Survey  all  that  is  necessary  for  their  triangulation  operations. 
In  other  words,  the  difficulty  of  separation  is  enormous. 

Of  course,  if  these  two  operations  never  had  been  combined  as  they 
have  been,  then  this  difficulty  Avould  not  exist,  but  they  have  been  com- 
bined and  we  have  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars' worth  of  material 
there  which  might  be  duplicated,  it  is  true,  but  at  a  very  great  expense 
and  with  a  great  lisk  of  errors,  etc.  This  I  regard  as  one  of  the  seri- 
ous difficulties  in  connection  with  any  such  division  a^  proposed. 

Now,  incidentally,  I  will  refer  to  some  questions  in  regard  to  the 
efficiency  of  the  service,  and  I  will  next  take  up  the  question  of  econ- 


106       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

omy.  You  will  remember  I  stated  that  if  any  change  was  made  in  this 
Bureau  that  it  would  be,  I  presume,  for  some  reason,  and  I  fancy  the 
committee  would  not  make  a  change  ot  this  kind,  upsetting  the  tradi- 
tions of  nearly  a  century,  without  some  good  reason,  and  I  said  that 
reason  could  only  be  an  increase  of  eiJicieiicy  or  an  increase  of  economy. 
I  will  refer  now  as  ra]>idly  as  I  can  to  the  question  of  economy.  I  say, 
therefore,  that  if  this  division  is  made  it  will  not  be  again  in  the  direc- 
tion of  economy,  but  it  will  be  'a  loss  in  the  direction  of  economy. 
The  operations  will  cost  more  than  they  do  now. 

I  could  refer  you  to  many  facts  that  will  snpport  that,  but  I  will  say, 
in  the  first  place,  that  the  cost  of  maintaining  and  repairing  vessels,  if 
put  under  the  control  of  the  Navy  Department,  would  be  very  decidedly 
greater  than  it  is  now  under  civil  control.  This  is  a  question  on  which, 
I  am  sure,  every  naval  officer  who  has  ever  served  in  the  Coast  Survey 
will  agree  with  me  very  heartily.  In  the  first  place,  referring  to  the 
cost  of  repair  of  vessels,  which  is,  of  course,  quite  a  large  item,  we  have 
our  vessels  repaired,  and  when  we  have  them  built  by  private  contract, 
very  much  as  the  other  portions  of  the  civil  branches  of  the  Govern- 
ment do,  and  the  result  is,  w^e  have  nothing  to  do  with  any  entangle- 
ment with  regard  to  navy-yard  repairs  and  navy-yard  matters.  Only 
this  last  summer,  and  in  fact  every  season,  we  have  very  extensive 
repairs;  and  one  of  the  vessels,  the  Bache^  of  wliich  I  spoke  the  other 
day,  was  repaired  last  season  at  a  cost  of  $15,000,  and  her  commander 
assured  me,  and  the  hydrographic  inspector  assured  me,  that  if  it  had 
been  d(me  in  the  navy-yard  the  cost  would  have  been  at  least  twice 
as  much. 

Occasionally  we  have  small  repairs  made  at  a  navy-yard,  notably  at 
Mare  Island,  San  Francisco,  and  we  have  invariably  found  it  was  an 
expensive  thing  and  have  avoided  it  as  far  as  possible.  It  is  quite  safe 
to  say  that  25  to  50  per  cent  of  the  cost  of  maintaining  vessels  is  saved 
by  our  methods,  the  civil  methods  of  doing  it.  In  the  firt^t  place  we  are 
not  so  particular  about  how  these  repairs  are  made.  That  is,  we 
have  them  made  substantially  well,  but  we  care  less,  perhaps,  for  the 
brass  ornamentation  and  that  sort  of  thing  about  the  engines,  as  our 
vessels  are  for  use  and  nothing  else,  and  this  is  a  very  important  item, 
as  I  think  everybody  can  see. 

Now,  another  increase  would  be  in  the  maintenance  of  these  vessels, 
and  I  think  every  naval  officer  will  agree  Avith  me  in  my  statement  that 
this  would  be  greatly  increased  if  the  vessels  were  to  be  transferred  to 
the  Navy.  I  infer  this  from  the  almost  universal  complaint  which 
comes  from  naval  officers,  not  made  in  a  disagreeable  way  at  all,  but 
merely,  1  presume,  a  statement  of  the  feeling  to  the  effect  that  the 
Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  is  very  poor. 

That  is  always  the  cry  when  it  comes  to  fitting  up  a  vessel,  that  the 
Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  is  very  poor,  so  that  we  can  not  have  this 
and  that,  and  so  as  a  matter  of  fact  we  do  not  have  the  kind  of  vessels 
which  in  the  Navy  Department  would  undoubtedly  exist.  A  very  lit- 
tle examination  will  justify  my  belief  that  the  expense  would  be  very 
much  greater  if  the  vessels  were  transferred  to  the  Navy  than  it  they 
were  left  under  civil  control.  We  have  a  great  deal  of  hard  work 
done  by  our  i)eople  that  is  done  by  naval  officers  and  men  really  on 
board  the  vessels,  and  we  save  a  great  deal  of  money.  Our  appropria- 
tions have  been  very  small,  and  we  have  been  forced  to  economize  in 
every  way  in  tliis  direction.  If  this  was  put  under  the  control  of  the 
Navy,  where  a  general  repair  fund  furnishes  this  and  that  kind  of 
thing,  I  think  I  could  predict  very  safely  that  in  a  very  few  years  the 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      107 

cost  of  inaintenaTice  would  be  double  wliat  it  is  now.  Now,  another 
increase  to  be  included  in  the  transfer  and  which  is  related  to  the  work 
would  i)robably  result,  because  it  would  not  necessarily  follow,  but 
which  I  think  will  naturally  follow  from  the  nature  of  things,  is  that 
an  increased  number  of  officers  would  be  employed  upon  many  of  these 
vessels. 

At  the  present  time,  since  the  service  in  the  Survey  is  an  irregular 
detail  lasting  two  or  three  years,  and  since  there  is  a  good  deal  of  hard 
work  connected  with  it,  we  have  had  a  great  deal  of  difficulty  in  getting 
officers  and  have  had  for  some  time.  The  fact  that  we  have  officers  to 
si)are  in  the  Navy,  which  has  been  used  sonietimt-s  as  an  argument  in 
favor  of  the  transfer,  that  we  have  men  there,  plenty  of  them,  does  not 
prove  to  be  a  fact.  In  the  last  two  or  three  years  we  have  had  to  run 
our  vessels  sometimes  short  and  have  had  to  use  every  effort  to  induce 
the  Navy  Department  to  detail  officers  to  us.  Of  course  there  was  a 
time,  ten,  fifteen,  or  twenty  years  ago,  when  there  Avere  plenty  of  officers 
of  the  Navy,  because  there  was  a  small  number  of  ships,  and  of  course 
you  are  aware  of  the  tremendous  increase  in  the  number  of  vessels  and 
the  tremendous  demand  for  naval  officers  to  man  them.  This  has  con- 
tinued until  at  present  we  have  just  about  half  the  number  of  officers 
detailed  on  the  work  we  had  five  years  ago,  and  it  is  now  difficult  to 
get  one. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  What  is  the  maximum  number? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  We  had  something  like  70  or  80  some  years 
ago,  and  we  had  some  41  a  little  while  ago,  but  we  have  30  to  35  now. 

Now,  I  would  like  at  this  point,  if  I  may  be  ])ardoned,  to  refer  to  a 
criticism  which  has  been  made  several  times,  and  I  think  by  the  honor- 
able Secretary  of  the  Navy,  or  at  least  the  Assistant  Secretary,  a  remark 
that  has  been  made  so  many  times,  and,  like  many  remarks  of  that 
kind,  repeated  until  it  comes  to  have  weight.  1  have  no  quest  ion  at  all 
that  those  who  made  it  thoroughly  believed  there  was  good  argument 
in  it,  but  I  think  there  is  none.  I  refer  to  one  of  the  reasons  given 
why  this  transfer  should  be  made  is  to  secure  to  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy  a  better  administrative  control  over  his  own  officers. 

Now,  I  would  like  in  the  first  place  to  invite  attention  to  the  fact 
that  this  same  sort  of  detail  is  made  to  several  other  bureaus,  as  I 
stated  the  other  day  to  the  Light-  House  Establishment,  where  many 
officers  go  out  of  the  immediate  direction  of  the  Secretary  for  years, 
and  to  the  Fish  Commission,  and  elsewhere,  and  I  would  also  like  to 
say,  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  has,  and  always  has  had,  a  very  close 
administrative  control  over  all  the  officers  who  are  in  the  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey.  In  fact,  I  might  say  iu  some  respects  he  has  had  a 
much  closer  control  than  1  would  like.  That  is  to  say,  he  ha^  never 
hesitated  to  call  officers  away  to  serve  on  court-martial  or  such  other 
duty  at  any  time.  This  Jias  always  been  recognized,  and  officers 
have  constantly  been  taken  away  from  us;  officers  have  received  orders 
from  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  to  report  for  such  and  such  a  duty, 
positively  without  knowledge  on  the  part  of  the  Superintendent  of  the 
Coast  Survey  until  they  returned.  So  I  say  the  fiU'Xs  of  the  case  do 
not  in  anyway  show  that  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  has  not  lost  in  the 
slightest  degree,  in  my  judgment,  the  control  over  his  own  officers  on 
account  of  this  detail.  They  are  always  under  his  direction  and  that 
fact  has  always  been  recognized  by  his  own  action. 

Now,  with  reference  to  the  economy  of  the  transfer  of  this  other  part 
of  the  work  to  the  Geological  Survey,  I  will  say  that  in  my  judgment, 
it  would  be  very  poor  economy  to  do  this,  even  supposing  there  was  no 


108       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

otlier  reason,  because  one  of  two  things  must  be  done:  The  work  must 
be  carried  on  essentially  as  it  is  now,  which  would  certainly  lead  to 
increased  expenditure  under  the  direction  of  the  Geological  Survey,  or 
else  it  must  be  carried  on  with  a  very  much  lower  standard  of  accuracy. 
If  it  is  carried  on  with  a  very  much  lower  standard  of  accuracy,  some 
time  or  other  this  work  must  be  done  over;  in  other  words,  it  is  not 
worth  doing  at  all  if  not  well  done.  My  judgment  is  that  this  work 
can  be  done  by  tiie  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  once  for  all,  and  the 
country  will  never  have  to  do  it  over  again,  and  tliat  being  the  case  it 
is  certainly  bad  policy  to  take  it  from  a  bureau  which  has  done  it  for 
many  years  and  put  it  under  one  which  has  never  done  it. 

Now,  I  wish  to  refer  to  a  few  other  criticisms  which  have  been  made. 
It  has  been  urged  several  times  that  the  topography  we  were  doing 
along  the  coast  is  of  too  refined  a  charactter.  It  has  been  said  that  we 
put  in  fences  and  houses,  and  that  kind  of  thing,  and  it  is  too  refined 
in  character.  Now,  I  contend  that  statement  can  not  be  maintained 
when  we  consider  either  of  the  two  j)urposes  for  which  we  desire  this 
work.  You  will  remember  that  the  two  purposes  for  whicii  tlie  shore 
topography  is  designed  are  the  i)urposes  of  defense  and  of  commerce. 
For  the  purposes  of  commerce  it  is  quite  clear,  in  my  judgment,  that 
the  topography  is  not  more  refined  than  it  should  be.  The  existence 
and  presence  of  a  small  feature  is  sometimes  the.  very  thing  that  saves 
the  vessel.  The  recognition  of  a  very  small  tiling,  it  may  be  a  church 
spire,  or  a  fence,  or  a  peculiar  topographical  feature,  is  very  often  an 
intimation  to  the  coaster  of  the  x>osition  of  his  vessel  and  is  of  great 
importance  in  saving  him.  I  have  already  referred  to  this  on  a  previ- 
ous occasion.  Now,  in  regard  to  matters  of  defense,  I  wish  to  read 
here  just  a  tew  words  from  what  ought  to  be  good  authority.  One  of 
these  gentlemen  is  major  of  engineers,  brevet  major-general,  retired, 
Gen.  W.  F.  Smith,  an  Army  officer  of  high  reputation,  and  is  well  known 
to  many  of  you.  He  says  in  regard  to  the  topographical  work  of  the 
Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey: 

Wilmington,  Del  ,  June  W,  1886. 

A  criticism  has  been  made  against  the  methods  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey 
which  I  deem  so  unjnst  that  I  would  feel  disposed  to  reply  to  it  if  I  knew  exactly 
upon  whom  to  direct  my  guns.  I  speak  of  the  charge  of  extravagance  in  the  topo- 
graphical details  in  the  published  charts.  I  think  it  was  as  far  back  as  1843  when 
the  plan  for  the  work  to  be  done  by  the  Coast  Survey  was  laid  out  and  approved  by 
the  President.  That  plan  looked  forwai  d  to  putting  in  so  much  of  the  topography  in 
the  published  work  of  the  Coast  Survey  as  sliould  be  important  ''for  the  purposes 
of  commerce  or  defense.''  Having  held  the  position  of  engineer  secretary  of  tho 
Light-House  Board,  and  been  engaged  in  the  held  during  the  civil  war,  1  feel  author- 
ized to  express  my  opinion  as  to  the  amount  of  topographical  detail  necessary  to 
cover  both  of  the  above  points. 

In  the  interests  of  navigation  it  is  important  that  the  to])ography  on  the  coast 
charts  should  embrace  all  permanent,  or  reasonably  permanent,  objects,  such  as 
churches,  houses,  groves,  hills,  hedges,  marshes,  and  embankments.  These  and 
their  combinations  always  aid  the  navigator  in  detennining  his  position  when  near 
shore,  and  yet  unable  froiir  any  cause  to  make  observations;  and  all  these. could  not 
well  be  determined  and  placed  upon  the  chart  without  also  determining  other 
details. 

For  defensive  purposes  no  minuteness  of  detail  can  be  too  great,  and  I  know  of 
instances  in  the  late  war  where  the  character  of  a  fence  has  determined  the  result  of 
a  ])attle. 

No  general  is  fitted  for  command  who  does  not  take  into  account  all  the  topo- 
graphical details  of  a  position  to  be  defended  or  assailed,  and  ignorance  of  the  exist- 
ence of  a  canal,  as  at  Fredericksburg,  may  cost  thousands  of  lives  and  millions  of 
money.  It  was  my  good  fortune  during  the  war  to  have,  through  the  liberal  views 
of  Prof.  Bache,  Coast  Survey  officers  on  duty  with  me  during  much  of  the  war. 
There  was  no  corps  in  the  United  States  service  capal)le  of  doing  the  work  done  by 
these  officers.  With  the  plane  table  they  always  made  for  me  minute  topographical 
maps  of  my  positions  when  near  the  enemy.     1  knew  all  distances  in  my  vicinity, 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      109 

aud  the  artillery  officers  were  never  at  1/mlt  if  they  had  to  ojien  fire.  I  knew  the 
depths  of  all  groves,  the  height  and  extent  of  dykes  and  fences,  altitudes  of  all  hills, 
and  consequently  had  all  necessary  information  for  otfensive  or  defensive  measures. 

If  there  is  any  such  thing  as  art  in  warfare,  these  details  are  indisp<?nsable  to  a 
general  in  forming  hisplans  of  battle  an<l  regulating  his  marches  so  that  his  columns 
can  be  at  the  key  point  of  the  battlefield  at  the  right  moment,  or,  if  he  is  acting 
on  the  defensive,  that  he  may  take  advantage  of  all  the  obstacles  in  repulsing  an 
attack.  To  neglect  these  details  is  to  show  utter  want  of  knowledge  of  fundamental 
rules  of  warfare. 

I  therefore  assert  that  for  navigation  and  defense  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey 
should  embrace  minute  details  of  toi)ograpliy.  To  neglect  them  is  to  risk  the  honor 
of  the  nation,  the  safety  of  its  ships,  and  the  welfare  of  its  people.  As  I  do  not 
know  to  whom  to  express  my  opinions  on  this  subject,  I  give  them  to  you  for  use  if 
you  can  use  them. 

Yours,  sincerely, 

Wm.  F.  Smith, 
Major  Enfjineers,  Brevet  Major-General  (Retired). 

I  am  sure  it  is  a  fact  which  will  be  concurred  in  by  many  of  you  who 
have  had  that  kind  of  exi^erience. 

Mr.  Bnloe.  What  is  the  date  of  the  letter? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  This  was  written  in  1886,  a  letter  written  at  a 
time  when  a  previous  movement  in  this  direction  was  made.  It  was 
printed  at  that  time;  at  all  events,  we  happen  to  have  several  printed 
copies.  There  is  also  a  letter  printed  on  the  same  sheet  written  at  the 
same  time  by  a  former  chief  of  engineers,  Brig,  and  Bvt.  Maj.  Gen.  H. 
G.  Wright.  He  speaks  in  the  most  positive  way,  and  says,  in  regard  to 
the  matter  of  defense : 

1203  N  Street,  NW., 

Washington,  July  1,  1886. 

Dear  Sir:  I  am  in  receipt  of  your  letter  asking  my  opinion  in  regard  to  the  use- 
fulness of  the  topography  of  the  maps  of  the  Coast  Survey  in  relation  to  the  pur- 
poses of  coast  defense,  and  have  to  say,  in  reply: 

That  as  regards  coast  defense  generally,  Mnd  the  operations  of  troops  upon  our 
South  Atlantic  coast,  I  have  had  considerable  experience — enough  to  enable  me  to 
speak  understandingly  upon  the  subject — in  the  first  connection  as  an  officer  of  the 
Corps  (of  Engineers)  charged  with  the  defenses  of  the  coast  of  the  United  States, 
and  finally  as  its  chief;  and  in  the  second,  as  closely  connected  with  the  so  well 
known  Port  Koyal  expedition. 

As  regards  the  former,  I  can  speakpositively  of  the  value  and  usefulness  of  the  topog- 
graphyof  the  Coaj*t  Survey  not  only  in  its  relations  to  questions  of  defense,  but  also 
in  regard  to  river  and  harbor  improvements,  since  we  had  occasion,  during  my  term 
of  active  service,  to  make  frequent  calls  upon  the  Coast  Survey  Office  for  maps  show^ 
ing  not  only  the  hydrographical  features  of  various  points  on  the  coast  but  also  the 
topography.  The  information,  always  readiily  supplied,  was  of  much  value  as  well 
as  a  great  saving  to  the  Government  on  the  score  of  expense. 

As  to  the  latter,  I  may  say  that  in  the  preparation  of  the  so-called  Port  Royal 
expedition,  the  entire  information  regarding  the  coasts  of  South  Carolina,  Georgia, 
and  Florida  was  obtained  from  the  Coast  Survey  Office,  and  the  project  of  the  expe- 
dition was  based  tliereon.  In  the  matter  of  the  detail  into  which  the  maps  went  it 
can  be  stated  that  instead  of  being  unnecessarily  minute  they  were  often  not  suffi- 
ciently so,  and  that  frequent  caWs  had  to  be  made  upon  the  Coast  Survey  officials 
connected  with  the  expedition  for  further  details  upon  which  to  base  ulterior  opera- 
tions. It  would  therefore  appear  that  the  topography  supplied  by  the  maps  failed 
rather  in  want  of  minuteness  than  in  its  excess. 

It  may  be  further  stated  that,  according  to  my  experience  in  the  late  war,  the 
Coast  Survey  snpplied  the  only  reliable  data  in  regard  to  the  topography  of  our 
immediate  sea  coast,  and  that  it  was  of  great  value  in  the  operations  of  our  land 
forces. 

Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

H.  G.  Wright, 
Brig.  andBrvt.  Maj.  Gen'l  {Retired) ,  formerly  Chief  of  Engineers. 

I  will  not  read  all  of  this  letter,  but  I  might  add  to  that  a  number  of 
selections  which  I  have  made  from  letters  written  during  the  war  and 
near  the  close  of  the  war  by  those  who  were  engaged  in  the  operations 


110      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

where  tlie  Coast  Survey  officers  \rere  also  employed.    This  is  from 
Admiral  Porter: 

Great  facilities  would  Lave  been  attbrded  the  Army  and  Navy,  for  operations  on 
the  Mi8Ki8sii>pi  liiver  and  its  tributaries,  had  the  Coast  Survey  or  some  institution 
like  it  preceded  them.  For  the  local  surveys  made  for  State  or  county  purposes  do 
not  ap])r(»ach  anything  like  perfection,  and  gives  but  little  information  adapted  to 
military  purposes. 

When  in  front  of  Vicksburg  1  think  I  can  say  I  had  the  most  complete  set  of  maps 
and  sketches  to  be  found  anywhere  in  this  vicinity,  and  the  commanding  general 
constantly  came  on  boiird  to  consult  them.  I  was  mainly  indebted  to  a  small  Coast 
Survey  party  which  1  had  with  me  for  these  maps. 

The  war  can  not  be  carried  on  without  good  maps.  The  general  or  admiral  who 
has  the  best  charts  will  be  apt  to  gain  great  advantage  over  his  antagonists.  In  a 
country  like  ours  where  States  and  counties  are  cut  up  into  lakes,  rivers,  and 
bayous,  known  only  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  district,  we  must  have  good  maps. 

I  think  it  is  not  necessary,  as  I  have  said,  to  read  all  these  notices, 
and  I  have  not  time  to  lead  them,  but  recognition  was  given  in  a  most 
generous  way  by  all  of  these  officers  of  the  value  of  the  accuracy  of  the 
work  of  the  Coast  Survey  at  that  time,  which  accuracy  has  been  main- 
tained since  then. 

Now,  as  to  tlie  refinement  of  this  work,  I  referred  to  that  the  other 
day,  and  I  will  not  therefore  speak  of  it  at  length  again,  but  1  will  say 
we  have  also  been  criticised  on  account  of  the  fact  that  we  have  car- 
ried tins  topographical  survey  too  far  from  shore.  I  stated,  and  I 
would  like  now  to  repeat  the  statement,  that  I  have  made  a  careful 
examination  of  the  practice  of  all  the  foreign  countries  in  this  respect, 
and  I  did  that  for  my  own  benefit,  and  I  found  on  the  whole  that  we 
are  rather  conservative;  that  we  have  a  somewhat  narrower  fringe  of 
topography  on  our  coast  charts  than  other  nations  have.    This  is  a  fact. 

Mr.  Enloe.  1  would  like  for  you  to  state  to  the  committee  right  here 
why  it  is  this  detail  work  has  been  carried  to  the  extent  it  is  along  the 
Atlantic  coast  from  the  Chesapeake  Bay  around  to  the  north,  and  so 
little  done  on  the  coast  of  the  South,  and  what  is  the  reason  for  this 
difference? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  no  not  know  that  there  is  any  very  great 
difference.  Of  course  there  would  be  topographical  reasons  for  a 
difference.  That  is  to  say,  when  you  go  on  a  ilat  country,  and  most 
of  the  southern  coast  is  flat,  we  have  not  the  topographical  features 
which  the  northern  coast  has,  and  there  would  be,  naturally,  not  a 
demand  for  so  much  of  a  survey,  the  general  practice  being  that  the 
topographer  must  go  back  far  enough.  When  we  give  topographers 
instructions  we  give  them  instructions  to  go  back  so  far  that  all  the 
objects  which  would  be  useful  in  navigation  shall  be  taken  in.  For 
instance,  if  you  are  in  a  country  where  there  are  hills  you  have  to  go 
back  to  them.  In  Alaska  we  have  on  our  charts  mountains  many 
miles  distant  from  the  coast,  and  they  are  of  the  greatest  importance, 
because  you  can  see  these  mountains  from  the  sea,  and  for  this  reason 
they  have  to  be  accurately  located. 

Mr.  Enloe.  In  a  flat  country  along  the  coast  there  is  a  great  uni- 
formity in  the  appearance  of  things'? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  That  is  true,  and  we  go  back  in  the  interior  far 
enough  to  cover  everything  that  will  be  used,  and  you  cen  easily  see 
that  in  a  flat  country  you  might  have  material  back,  miles  away,  that 
can  not  be  used  by  a  vessel  because  it  can  not  be  seen  from  the  sea. 
I  know  of  no  other  reason  than  this.  In  fact,  I  would  be  very  much 
surprised  if  there  is  a  very  great  difference  made  between  the  northern 
and  southern  coast. 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      Ill 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  think  there  is  quite  a  difference  in  your  work,  whi^h  is 
generally  around  the  cities  along  the  Atlantic  coast  in  the  east  from 
what  you  will  find  on  the  maps  of  the  southern  coast? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  1  should  doubt  that,  Mr.  Enloe.  Now,  some- 
thing has  been  said  about  our  fine  map  of  New  York  City,  and  I  am 
glad  the  matter  has  been  brought  up.  I  am  sorry  to  say  we  did  not 
make  it;  it  is  not  our  survey.  We  very  rarely  survey  cities;  we  copy 
them,  take  them  from  the  city  engineers  whenever  we  can  get  work 
which  is  reliable. 

Now,  about  the  map  of  New  York  City,  of  which  a  good  deal  has 
been  said,  we  did  make  a  survey  of  the  shore  line  around  New  York 
City;  that  is  our  topograidiical  survey,  but  the  whole  city  itself  is 
simply  taken  from  the  survey  of  the  city  engineers,  and  that  is  our  uni- 
form practice.  It  is  the  same  way  in  regard  to  Boston.  Just  now  1 
am  having  compiled  the  additions  in  the  great  growth  of  the  city  of 
Boston  during  the  last  forty  years.  Our  chart  of  Boston  Harbor  is 
as  old  as  that,  and  of  course  the  city  has  changed  wonderfully  in  that 
time.  We  are  having  this  done  as  far  as  possible  by  compilation,  and 
we  make  these  comi)ilations  wherever  we  can  get  them,  and  they  are 
reliable. 

Mr.  Enloe.  You  accept  these  maps  as  absolutely  accurate  and  rely 
upon  them  instead  of  your  own  surveys,  then"^ 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  We  do  not  make  surveys  of  cities,  because  what 
we  desire  most  in  the  city  is  to  have  the  principal  points  in  them,  and 
those  we  locate  ourselves.  As  I  stated  the  other  day,  such  objects  as 
a  large  building,  like  the  New  York  World  building,  whenever  it  is 
finished,  we  send  a  man  and  an  instrument  to  the  top  of  them  to  find 
the  exact  location,  as  we  want  that  very  definitely  on  our  charts.  We 
try  to  have  them  located  with  great  accuracy. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  How  do  you  arrange  when  a  building  of  that 
description  is  destroyed  ? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  We  have  to  keep  correcting  these  charts  con- 
stantly by  hand.  There  is  never  a  chart  which  goes  out  of  the  office, 
but  which  Is  not  passed  through  a  hand  correction  in  which  these 
changes  are  made.  Now,  referring  to  this  question  raised  by  Mr.  Enloe, 
takf^  the  city  of  Charleston ;  1  have  only  recently  had  the  survey  of  that 
extended,  and  they  are  still  compiling  in  that  direction  to  make  it  as 
complete  as  possible.  We  compile  it  in  the  very  best  way,  and  certainly 
I  should  be  surprised  if  there  is  any  reasonable  complaint  in  that 
respect. 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  am  not  making  any  complaint  of  it;  I  only  wanted  to 
know,  as  it  appeared  to  me  on  an  examination  of  the  maps  it  was  a  fact, 
and  I  wanted  to  know  the  reason. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  think  there  is  no  other  reason  than  arises 
from  topographical  requirements.  When  the  survey  is  extended  back 
further  you  will  find  the  topography  of  the  country  demands  it,  and 
certainly  there  is  none  other  of  which  I  know. 

The  next  point  to  which  I  wish  to  refer,  which  comes  in  perhaps  some- 
what irregularly,  but  I  think  it  is  important,  is  with  regard  to  the 
criticism  that  has  been  made  upon  the  question  of  salaries  of  the 
officers  who  are  employed  in  this  office,  and  I  want  to  say  I  think  such 
criticism  has  no  foundation  whatever.  It  has  often  been  urged  that 
there  was  at  one  time  a  board  organized  for  the  express  purpose  of 
raising  the  salaries  of  those  officers.  I  think  I  hardly  need  say  to  this 
committee  that  such  a  thing  would  be  absolutely  impossible,  even  if  it 
were  proposed,  and  I  will  therefore  remark  in  regard  to  these  salaries 


112      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

(I  a»i  glad  to  have  an  opportunity  to  refer  to  this  phase  of  the  question), 
there  is  no  bureau  of  the  Government  which  l|as,  as  far  as  I  have  been 
able  to  ascertain,  as  long  an  average  length  of  service  as  the  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey.  Making  a  list  of  all  of  the  assistants  as  I  did  only 
recently,  that  is  I  made  it  up  to  the  1st  of  January,  I  find  that  these 
assistants,  against  whom  this  criticism  is  made,  have  served,  on  an 
average,  the  Government  of  the  United  States  for  tliirty  years. 

This  is  the  average  service.  Many  of  them,  of  course,  I  need  hardly 
say,  have  served  much  more  than  that.  A  number  of  them  haveserved 
more  than  forty  years  and  some  of  them,  in  iact  I  noticed  one  of  them 
who  just  came  in  a  moment  ago,  has  served  the  U.  S.  Government  as  an 
officer  of  the  Coast  Survey  for  fifty-six  years,  that  is,  he  will  have  done  so 
on  the  12th  of  July  or  somewhere  about  that  time,  and  I  want  to  say 
he  is  still  j)retty  active  and  vigorous  and  does  his  work,  as  can  be  testi- 
fied to  by  anybody  who  knows  anything  about  it,  quite  as  well  as  many 
younger  men.  Now,  after  this  our  next  longest  period  is  that,  1  think, 
of  Prof.  Davidson,  of  San  Francisco,  who  has  served  the  Government 
for  about  foity-nine  years  in  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey.  Then  we 
come  to  Mr.  Rodgers,  who  has  served  forty-seven  years,  and  Mr.  Schott, 
the  chief  computer  of  the  office,  who  has  served  forty- five  years;  another 
officer  has  served  forty-five,  and  another  thirty-five,  and  so  we  come 
down,  and  as  I  tell  you,  the  average  of  all  this  is  about  thirty  years. 
Now,  if  that  be  considered,  such  a  corps  is  entitled  to  some  considera- 
tion on  account  of  the  length  of  time  they  have  devoted  to  the  service 
of  the  Government,  and  when  we  look  into  the  question 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  want  to  ask  you  on  that  point,  do  we  understand  this 
revision  and  rearrangement  of  salaries  which  took  place  in  Fifty-first 
Congress  was  based  entirely  upon  length  of  service*? 

Pi  of.  Mendenhall.  No,  sir;  not  entirely  upon  length  of  service. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Then  upon  what  was  it  based  1 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  It  was  based  upon  length  of  service  and  merit 
as  far  as  that  merit  could  be  ascertained,  and  I  would  like  to  say  I 
hold  myself  entirely  responsible  for  that  revision ;  I  do  not  want  to 
throw  the  responsibility  on  anybody  else.  I  will  say  that  it  was  made 
after  I  had  been  in  the  service  about  a  year  or  more,  and  I  would  have 
been  a  very  foolish  man  if  I  had  not  consulted  the  older  men  of  the 
corps  who  knew  all  the  men  well  and  could  give  some  idea  of  their 
relative  abilities.  The  occasion  for  this  revision  was  simply  the  fact 
that  a  large  number  of  irregular  salaries  had  been  existing  prior  to 
that  time.  The  Appropriations  Committee  requested  me  to  make  it, 
and  as  the  arrangement  was  desired  to  be  systematic  the  salaries  were 
arranged  to  increase  by  $200  from  grade  to  grade.  A  very  few  who 
were  receiving  the  higher  salaries  were  kept  at  the  same  rate  without 
disturbing  them.  In  fact  certain  changes  were  made,  some  salaries  I 
think  were  reduced,  and  some  increased,  but  I  am  frank  to  say  none 
were  increased  as  much  as  I  wished  they  could  have  been. 

The  Chairman.  What  was  the  aggregate  increase? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  The  total  increase  in  the  salaries,  was,  I  think, 
only  a  few  hundred  dollars;  but,  pardon  me,  I  will  be  glad  to  answer 
any  questions  you  have  to  ask  after  stating 

Mr.  Enloe.  Then,  I  will  ask  questions  about  that  when  you  get 
through. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  would  like  to  call  your  attention  to  this.  I 
have  here  a  very  carefully  x)repared  table  of  the  compensation  received 
by. these  gentlemen  to-day  and  the  compensation  received  by  the  same 
gentlemen  ten  years  ago,  in  1884.    This  is  a  table  which  was  prepared 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      113 

from  the  official  books  and  records  of  the  disbursing  officer,  and  the 
resultisthis.  This  table^mbracesliO  men.  1  have  taken  the  older  assist- 
ants, having  left  off  a  few  of  the  younger  men  because  they  have  entered 
the  service  since  then,  beginning  at  a  salary  of  $700,  but  1  have  taken 
29  out  of  about  42  or  43  officers  altogether  and  this  is  the  result,  that 
of  these  21)  men  23  of  them  to  day  are  receiving  less  compensation 
than  they  did  ten  years  ago  in  spite  of  the  advance  which  has  been 
talked  about.  Twenty-three  are  actually  receiving  less  and  only  6 
are  getting  more,  and  that  a  very  small  sum. 

I  maintain,  therefore,  the  criticism  against  the  regime  and  arrange- 
ment which  has  nothing  more  in  it  than  this  is  not  very  strong.  I  will 
explain.  In  1884  the  salaries  of  the  Coast  Survey  officers  were  greatly 
reduced,  considerably  reduced  by  the  action,  which  I  have  always  main- 
tained to  be  a  proper  action  as  my  colleagues  know,  of  my  predecessor, 
Mr.  Thorne,  in  cutting  off*  the  contingent  subsistence  allowed  to  officers 
in  the  field,  but  who,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  were  allowed  a  certain 
amount  of  subsistence  throughout  the  year.  This  had  been  maintained 
for  years.  It  has  never  been  maintained  since,  of  course,  but  the  fact 
is,  this  amounted  to  a  very  serious  reduction  in  their  compensation,  and 
therefore  when  I  had  an  opportunity  in  1890  to  advance  some  of  these 
men  I  did  it  very  cheerfully,  and  I  regretted  that  1  could  not  do  more, 
because  their  salaries  are  still  behind  what  they  received  in  1884. 

Mr.  Meyer.  In  what  way  was  that  subsistence  given? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  They  were  paid  at  the  rate  of  so  many  dollars 
per  day. 

Mr.  Mi; YER.  Was  it  a  ration  ! 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Ko,  sir;  it  w^as  commuted.  Let  me  explain  our 
present  plan.  When  we  send  an  officer  to  the  field  he  has  to  do  one  of 
two  things.  When  he  goes  into  the  field  where  there  are  no  houses  or 
boarding  houses  he  is  obliged  to  live  in  camp,  and  the  Government 
furnishes  him  with  a  tent  and  employs  a  cook  and  we  only  allow  him 
$1  per  day  for  subsistence  in  camp.  Well,  now,  whenever  he  can  live 
in  a  hotel  or  boarding  liouse,  which  is  cheaper  for  the  Government 
than  living  in  camp,  we  then  allow  him  $2.50  per  day.  Formerly  the 
allowance  was  $3  per  day,  and  formerly  it  was  allowed  to  certain  per- 
sons continually  throughout  the  year  whether  they  were  in  the  field  or 
not,  a  practice  which  I  say  I  believe  to  have  been  a  dangerous  one,  but 
which  existed  many  years  and  for  which  theofficers  receiving  the  allow- 
ance were  not  responsible — that  is  to  say,  it  was  their  chiefs  who  were 
responsible.  It  was  in  regard  to  this  manner  of  compensation  which 
was  considered  when  the  increase  of  salary  was  made  which  took  place 
n  1590. 

Another  complaint  bearing,  perhaps,  on  this  same  matter  is  that  we 
have  a  number  of  field  officers  who  are  detailed  to  do  work  in  the  office. 
This  criticism  I  am  glad  to  have  the  o])portunity  to  touch  upon  briefly. 
A  most  serious  mistake  would  be  made  if  this  practice  was  to  be  aban- 
doned, and  I  will  say  by  degrees  it  came  intoexistenceduring  the  time  of 
my  i)redecessor,  Mr.  Thorne,  who,  I  think,  was  wise  enough,  and  who, 
being  a  good  business  man,  understood  that  the  work  of  the  office  should 
be  well  done,  thoroughly  done,  and  that  it  should  be  done  under  the 
directii  n  of  thosewhowerethoroughly  familiar  with  the  character  of  the 
field  operations.  At  the  present  time  we  have  several  officers  who  are 
detailed  to  work  in  the  office,  and  I  will  enumerate  the  most  important. 
I  would  be  very  glad  to  mention  all  of  them.  Mr.  Schott,  chief  of  the 
computing  division,  Is  one  of  those  who  has  been  in  the  office  tbrty  years, 
except  probably  on  very  rare  occasions  when  he  has  been  sent  out  into 
4561 8 


114       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

the  field  to  do  work,  but  not  continuously,  so  I  regard  him  as  being 
permanently  detailed  in  the  office,  and  a  detail  which  I  regard  as 
extremely  necessary. 

His  services  are  extremely  valuable  to  us  in  conducting  the  affairs  of 
that  very  intricate  and  important  division.  Then  we  have  the  chief 
of  the  engraving  division,  but  he  is  not  necessarily  all  the  time  in  office. 
Last  year,  for  instance,  he  was  in  the  field  for  more  than  six  months  in 
Alaska,  rather  to  the  detriment,  I  am  afraid,  of  the  work  in  his  division, 
because  I  did  not  think  it  got  on  as  well  during  his  absence,  but  I  like 
to  send  these  men  to  the  field  occasionally  for  particular  things,  although 
I  believe  their  presence  in  the  office  is  of  specially  great  importance. 
The  engraving  division  is  the  largest  division  in  the  office  and  the  chief 
has  to  be  a  practical  expert  in  photolithography, photographing,  engrav- 
ing, and  so  on.  The  value  of  the  charts  depends  largely,  in  my  judg- 
ment, upon  this  division  being  controlled  by  one  who  is  thoroughly 
familiar  with  field  operations  and  especially  with  topographic  work. 

The  Chairman.  Has  that  division  its  headquarters  here? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Yes,  sir.  The  officer  who  has  charge  of  it  is 
the  best  topographer  we  have  in  the  service,  and  last  year  he  spent  six 
months  in  Alaska,  and  this  year  I  shall  send  him  to  the  field  again,  but 
not  for  so  long.  Whenever  a  serious  demand  exists  for  sending  these 
men  to  the  field  we  send  them  in  order  to  crowd  a  piece  of  work  through. 
We  do  that  in  spite  of  the  fact  we  believe  it  is  wiser  to  have  them  in 
the  office  all  the  time.  In  the  instrument  division  we  also  have  a  field 
officer  in  charge,  and  this  has  proved  to  be  of  the  utmost  value.  It  is 
of  the  utmost  value  because  we  must  have  there  a  man  who  can  test  an 
instrument  before  it  is  taken  into  the  field.  You  can  not  have  an 
instrument  shop  make  satisfactory  instruments  if  you  have  in  charge 
an  instrument  maker  who  is  simply  skilled  in  the  mechanical  construc- 
tion of  instruments;  you  must  have  one  who  understands  the  use  of 
every  instrument  which  goes  to  the  field,  and  they  must  all  be  tested. 

Only  a  day  or  two  ago  we  were  about  to  send  and  instrument  to  the 
field  when  the  chief  of  the  instrument  division  applied  a  particular 
test  to  it  and  found  it  to  be  imperfect  in  that  resi)ect.  I  regard  it  of 
the  utmost  importance  that  we  should  have  a  field  officer  in  charge  of 
the  instrument  division.  I  ought  to  say,  in  justice  to  this  man,  that 
although  he  has  been  here  three  or  four  years  continuously  in  charge  of 
this  division,  during  two  of  these  years  he  also  did  field  work.  This  man 
lives  outside  of  Washington  some  miles,  and  there  were  some  important 
investigations  being  conducted  by  the  International  Geodetic  Associa- 
tion in  regard  to  the  variation  of  latitude,  which  we  could  not  conduct 
here  in  Washington,  or  spend  money  for  or  spend  valuable  time  on,  so 
we  put  him  alone  at  that  work,  and  in  spite  of  that  fact  he  succeeded 
in  making  these  observations,  which  have  received  high  praise  from 
the  International  Geodetic  Association  in  Berlin. 

We  asked  this  man,  who  is  in  charge  of  the  instrument  division,  to 
make  these  observations,  and  he  left  here,  say,  at  4  o'clock  in  the  after, 
noon,  and  went  to  his  home  16  miles  away  and  spent  the  night  until 
say,  1  o'clock  in  the  morning,  making  these  observations  on  every  clear 
night,  returning  each  morning  to  his  duties  in  the  office.  The  next 
division  is  the  drawing  division,  and  in  that  division  all  the  drawings 
of  the  charts  are  made  for  the  engraver  and  for  the  lithographer,  and 
'  no  one,  except  a  man  who  is  familiar  with  topographical  work,  would 
be  fit  for  the  kind  of  supervision  required,  so  we  have  a  field  officer  in 
charge.  In  the  chart  division  also,  which  is  the  place  from  which  the 
charts  are  issued,  we  have  a  field  officer.    He  is  a  man  especially  famil- 


transfp:k  of  coast  and  geodetic  survey.     115 

iar  with  hydrographic  work.  He  was  engaged  for  many  years  as  a 
civilian  in  that  work  and  is  an  expert  hydrographer.  He  revises  all 
the  charts  and  reviews  them,  and  1  think  it  is  of  great  value  that  this 
system  should  be  pursued.  In  other  words,  the  criticism  that  in  the 
Coast  Survey  we  have  kept  field  officers  detailed  in  the  office  is  to  me 
only  of  very  little  weight. 

I  should  like  also  to  refer  to  the  cost  of  this  topographic  survey  on 
which  several  comments  and  criticisms  have  been  made.  I  referred  to 
that  the  other  day  and  spoke  of  the  cost  of  one  or  two  kinds.  I  will 
simply  say  that  the  cost  of  the  tojjography  depends  entirely  upon  its 
character.  It  might  cost  aiiy  where  from  nothing  up  to  $7,000  or  $8,000 
per  square  mile.  Perhaps  I  had  better  say  it  might  cost  from  $L  per 
square  mile  up  to  $7,000  or  $8,000  per  square  mile,  as  I  have  known  it  to 
be  all  the  way  between  these  limits.  The  Coast  Survey  has  made  topog- 
raphy at  a  small  cost,  and  is  in  the  habit  of  doing  it  when  it  is  neces- 
sary. We  have  a  chart  here  that  was  made  during  the  last  year,  and 
a  very  important  and  valuable  chart  it  is.  This  is  a  chart  made  in  con- 
nection with  the  boundary  survey  in  Alaska,  on  which  we  are  now 
engaged.  This  was  made  by  one  of  our  most  competent  topographers, 
who  is  at  the  same  time  one  of  our  cheapest  topographers.  I  have  com- . 
puted  the  cost  of  that  survey.     It  cost  about  $1.80  per  square  mile. 

The  Chairman.  For  how  many  square  miles'? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  For  about  800  square  miles,  and  I  will  say  that 
it  looks  as  well  now  as  a  map  1  might  show  you  which  might  cost  $1,000 
or  $-5,000  a  square  mile.  If  I  should  make  a  maj)  costing  that  much  it 
would  look  no  better.  In  other  words,  you  can  make  a  map  costing  $1 
per  square  mile  look  as  well  as  a  map  costing  $1,000  per  square  mile, 
therefore  the  appearance  of  a  map  is  only  an  evidence  of  good  drafts- 
manship ;  it  does  not  mean  necessarily  that  it  is  a  good  survey.  This 
survey  was  necessary  for  our  work,  and  therefore  it  was  made  not 
cheaply,  but  as  cheaply  as  possible. 

The  Chairman.  Is  it  a  part  of  the  Alaska  survey? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  It  is  a  part  of  the  Alaska  survey.  This  is  the 
Stiekine  Kiver  you  see  here  [exhibiting].  Our  object  in  this  survey,  I 
will  say,  is  to  get  an  idea  as  to  the  shape  of  these  mountains.  It  has 
been  claimed  and  is  now  claimed  on  the  part  of  the  United  States  that 
there  is  no  mountain  range  parallel  to  the  coast  in  Alaska,  and  there- 
fore our  boundary  line  must  run  back  a  distance  of  10  marine  leagues, 
and  my  colleague  representing  the  English  Government  is  inclined  to 
maintain  that  there  is  a  mountain  range  running  along  parallel  to  the 
coast.  Kow,  the  treaty  says  that  if  such  a  range  exists  the  boundary  line 
shall  follow  it,  but  my  contention  is,  and  it  is  justified  by  this  map, 
that  no  such  range  of  mountains  exists,  and,  therefore,  we  have  to  fall 
back  upon  the  second  definition  of  the  treaty,  which  carries  the  boundary 
line  back  10  leagues.  There  is  nothing  whatever,  I  contend,  to  indicate 
a  range  of  mountains  running  parallel  to  the  coast. 

The  cost  of  triangulation  was  referred  to  here  the  other  day,  and 
therefore  I  have  had  a  very  careful  computation  made  in  regard  to  that, 
and  I  am  very  glad  to  be  able  to  inform  the  committee  on  this  subject. 
I  have  had  com])uted  the  cost  of  primary  triangulation,  which  is  gen- 
erally regarded  as  the  most  expensive  kind.  It  is  the  kind  most  accu- 
rately done,  but  rather  to  our  surprise  the  cost  per  square  mile  appears 
to  be,  on  the  whole,  the  least.  This  cost  results  from  the  very  great 
area  which  is  covered  by  this  class  of  our  triangulation.  Some  state- 
ments have  been  made,  as  you  will  remember,  I  think  before  the  com- 
mittee, that  this  interior  triangulation  costs  at  the  rate  of  $100  per 


116  TRANSFER    OF    COAST   AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY. 

square  mile,  and  even  as  high  as  $600  was  mentioned  on  one  occasion. 
The  computation  shows  that  the  cost  of  primary  triangulatiou,  taking 
the  systems  out  in  the  Koeky  Mountains,  west  and  east,  instead  of  being 
$600  per  square  mile,  or  $100  per  square  mile,  is  actually  about  $1.40 
per  square  mile. 

This  is  the  actual  cost  of  that  triangulation,  and  it  includes,  I  will 
say,  only  the  area  covered  by  the  triangulation.  It  does  not  include 
that  area  which  the  triangulation  controls.  If  I  may  show  you  and 
explain  this  [illustrating  on  chart]  chart  I  have  also  had  drawn  up,  it 
will  give  you  at  a  glance  an  idea  as  to  wha^  we  have  done  in  triangula- 
tion, and  what  we  propose  to  do.  This  chart  will  tell  the  story  better 
than  anything  else.  The  blue  represents  all  we  have  done,  and  the 
red  represents  what  we  propose  to  do  in  the  future  in  the  way  of  pri- 
mary triangulation.  These  marks  where  the  blue  is  not  solid  means 
where  we  have  had  reconnoissances  and  it  is  only  partly  done,  as,  for 
instance,  that  part  here  [illustrating].  This  is  the  great  transconti- 
nental chain  to  which  I  have  referred  so  often.  This  is  the  place  where 
we  have  computed  the  cost  of  this  triangulation,  and  which  turned  out, 
as  I  have  said,  for  the  area  covered,  to  be  about  $1.40  per  square  mile. 

There  is  a  gap  which  we  hope  to  complete  this  summer,  and  complete, 
therefoie,  this  enormous  line  across  here  (illustrating),  a  greater  chain 
of  triangulation  than  ever  before  measured  in  the  world.  This  red 
means  exactly  what  we  believe  to  be  the  necessary  additions  to  this 
great  system  of  primary  triangulation.  Alter  the  red  is  completed 
then  there  will  come  in  certain  other  lines  indicated  here  and  some 
points  run  ah)ng  the  State  boundary  lines.  I  believe  the  best  and  most 
economical  way  to  provide  for  State  surveys  will  be  to  run  these  tri- 
angular lines  upon  which  they  can  base  their  State  work.  So  you  will 
see  this  system  of  red  and  blue  controls,  therefore,  the  whole  United 
States,  and  consequently  if  you  want  to  compute  the  cost  per  square 
mile  for  the  whole,  here  you  will  have  to  reduce  the  cost  of  $1.40,  which 
is  the  cost  of  the  area  covered  by  the  triangulation  in  the  ratio  of  the 
area  that  the  triangulation  might  control,  which  is  about  4  to  1,  and  of 
course  is  relatively  an  exceedingly  small  sum. 

Now,  the  cost  of  secondary  and  tertiary  triangulations  necessary  for 
the  projection  of  topography  it  is  found  difficult  to  compute,  in  very 
great  measure,  because  it  is  so  combined,  as  I  said  the  other  day,  with 
hydrography  and  topography,  the  whole  work  being  done  in  many 
instances  by  the  same  parties,  but  fortunately  we  have  got  an  example 
of  the  work  recently  in  the  execution  of  work  in  the  State  of  Massa- 
chusetts within  the  last  few  years  whero  Massachusetts  having  been 
engaged  in  carrying  on  a  State  survey  the  triangulation  was  executed 
by  the  State  of  Massachusetts  according  to  the  methods  of  the  Coast 
and  Geodetic  Survey  and  under  the  direction  of  that  Survey.  The 
chairman  of  the  commission  is  an  officer  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey  whose  home  happens  to  be  in  Massachusetts,  and  therefore  the 
methods  of  the  Coast  Survey  were  carried  out  there,  and  we  can  get 
the  percentage  of  cost  of  that  which  has  been  done  independent  of  the 
topography. 

This  I  have  obtained  through  the  presence  of  this  officer,  and  it  proves 
to  be  $2.44  per  square  mile.  That  is  to  say,  the  extension  of  all  this 
triangulation  down  for  topography  was  that  amount.  Now,  I  think 
you  will  admit  that  the  cost  of  this  work  has  been  very  grossly  exagger- 
ated. Statements  have  been  made  and  so  frequently  made  that  many 
persons  have  come  to  believe  the  enormous  cost  mentioned  as  correct. 

The  assertion  has  been  made  also,  I  think  before  this  committee  and 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      117 

elsewhere,  that  the  money  appropriated  for  this  Survey  has  not  always 
been  applied  in  a  legitimate  way — I  think  I  can  use  these  words  with 
propriety — that  it  has  been  appropriated  in  lump  sums,  and  it  has  not 
been  possible  to  know  exactly  what  has  become  of  it.  Now,  I  wish  to 
show  you  how  entirely  untrue  such  a  criticism  is.  In  the  first  i)lace,  I 
referred  the  other  day  to  the  foct  that  annually  we  submit  to  Congress 
a  detailed  statement  of  the  expenditure  of  every  dollar  tbat  has  been 
appropriated,  and  as  far  as  those  expenditures  are  concerned  that  is 
settled. 

Now,  as  to  the  possibility  of  our  doing  what  is  intimated,  that  we 
have  taken  money  api)ropriated  in  a  lump  sum  and  used  it  for  any  pur- 
pose when  it  was  really  intended  by  Congress  to  be  used  for  another,  I 
invite  your  attention  to  the  last  appropriation  bill,  or  the  appropriation 
bill  of  any  of  the  last  ten  years,  and  ask  you  to  compare  the  appropri- 
ations of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  in  the  appropriation  bill  in 
which  it  appears  with  the  appropriations  for  the  Geological  Survey, 
and  you  will  find  the  ai)propriations  for  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey 
are  given  in  the  utmost  detail.  We  occupy  a  greater  space  in  the  sun- 
dry civil  bill  than  I  often  think  we  ought  to  do  or  are  entitled  to, 
because  we  have  gone  to  very  great  detail;  but  the  largest  item  given 
in  this  bill  is  an  item  of  $17,700,  and  that,  as  you  will  see,  is  detailed 
in  itself  to  cover  a  large  number  of  points  to  which  the  money  is  to  be 
applied.  Then  they  run  from  that  down  to  $4,000  and  $5,000,  and  there 
are  1 4  or  15  items. 

The  Chairman.  Is  this  the  sundry  civil  bill'? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  For  the  last  Congress,  or  you  may  go  back  at 
any  time  in  the  last  ten  years,  and  you  will  iind  the  same  thing.  Let 
me  turn,  for  instance,  to  the  Geological  Survey,  and  there  you  will  find 
for:  "Topographical  surveys  in  various  portions  of  the  United  States, 
$200,000."  One  single  item,  not  covered  or  protected  by  anything 
except  "  in  various  i)ortions  of  tlie  United  States."  Now,  if  you  will 
compare  that  and  other  features  of  the  bill  with  ours,  I  think  you  will 
see,  as  far  as  that  criticism  is  concerned,  there  is  very  little  in  it.  Com- 
pare it  also  with  the  Kevenue  Cutter  Service.  Here  you  have  appro- 
priated without  specifying,  except  in  a  general  way,  the  various  kind 
of  things  to  be  accomplished  (they  are  mentioned  precisely  as  in  our 
Survey),  but  the  total  sum  of  $925,000  is  given  in  a  lump.  I  do  not 
criticise  that  mode  of  appropriation.  It  is  x^erhaps  often  wise,  but  I 
ask  your  attention  to  the  distinction  between  this  and  our  own  appro- 
priation in  the  matter  of  detail. 

Another  statement  to  which  I  would  like  also  to  call  your  attention, 
gentlemen,  is  one  which  has  been  many  times  made,  and  often  made,  by 
those  gentlemen  in  authority  who  ought  to  have  known  whether  such  a 
statement  was  correct  or  not,  and  that  is  the  stateinent  that  all  the 
hydrographic  work  is  done  by  the  Navy,  and  always  has  been  done  by 
the  Navy. 

Now,  it  is  only  necessary  to  appeal  to  the  actual  records  to  show  how 
incorrect  and  how  misleading  that  statement  is.  From  the  year  1861  to 
the  year  1874,  a  period  of  fourteen  years,  inclusive,  not  any  hydro- 
graphic  work  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  was  done  by  the  Navy; 
no  naval  officers  were  engaged  in  the  work,  but  it  was  all  done  by  civ- 
ilians. That,  of  course,  I  think  came  from  the  fact  that  in  1801  all  of 
the  Navy  and  Army  was  called  upon  for  other  duties.  It  is  a  fact,  I 
think,  which  is  woi  thy  of  consideration  here,  that  had  the  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey  at  that  time  existed  in  the  way  that  it  would  neces- 
sarily exist  if  this  bill  should  become  a  law,  it  would  have  been  instantly 


118       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

broken  up,  its  work  would  have  been  discontinued ;  but  fortunately  it 
bad  an  organization  wbicli  maintained  itself,  which  enabled  it  through- 
out that  whole  period  to  perform  such  valuable  services  as  have  been 
testified  to  by  every  admiral  and  every  naval  ofiBcer  and  every  Army 
ofticer  throughout  that  whole  unfortunate  difficulty. 

Now,  therefore,  I  say  from  ISbl  to  1874,  inclusive,  the  hydrographic 
work  was  done  by  civilians.  In  18<4  Capt.  Patterson j"^  who  was  a 
retired  naval  officer,  and  who  had  formauy  years  been  the  hydrographic 
inspect(>r  of  the  Coast  Survey,  that  is  to  say  he  had  occupied  the  place 
now  occupied  by  a  naval  officer,  became  superintendent  of  the  Coast 
Survey  on  the  retirement  of  Prof.  Benjamin  Pierce,  of  Harvard  Uni- 
versity, and  so  he  was  naturally  inclined  in  the  direction  of  the 
Navy,  and  through  recognition  of  the  fact  that  it  was  a  desirable  thing 
to  accomplish,  because  I  believe  it  was  at  that  time  the  Navy  was 
brought  again  into  the  hydrographic  work  after  an  absence  of  very 
many  years.  It  is  instructive  to  consider  what  occurred  at  this  time 
and  what  had  occurred  during  this  interim.  In  the  first  place,  during 
this  interim  our  Naval  officers,  I  think,  will  admit  very  important 
improvements  had  taken  place  in  the  methods  of  doing  hydrography. 

The  civihans  of  the  Survey  upon  whom  this  entire  work  had  fallen 
brought  to  that  work  a  standard  of  efficiency,  and  an  integrity  of 
work  which  they  had  maintained  throughout  all  their  earlier  work,  and 
necessarily  they  at  once  improved  ,and  in  a  very  marked  way,  the  char- 
acter of  the  work  which  was  done;  but  I  also  say  if  naval  officers  had 
been  employed  on  this  work  in  1861,  or  at  the  close  of  the  war,  they 
would  have  naturally  made  the  same  advance,  because  just  at  that  time 
we  were  ripe  for  improvements  in  these  methods.  It  is  also  instructive 
to  note  when  the  Nav^^  was  brought  back  into  the  Survey  to  perform 
these  hydographic  duties  the  naval  officers  received  instructions  from 
the  civilians.  I  mention  this  of  course  without  any  criticism  on  the 
naval  officers,  but  as  a  simple  statement  of  tact,  and  it  is  a  fact  that 
ought  to  be  referred  to,  I  think,  in  view  of  all  these  reputed  statements 
about  civilians  having  never  done  hydrography  and  that  it  has  always 
been  done  by  the  Navy.  Officers  of  the  Navy  were  sent  sometimes 
with  civilian  parties,  and  many  of  the  officers  in  the  Coast  Survey 
to-day  received  these  naval  officers  and  instructed  them  in  hydrographic 
work. 

A  gentleman  to  whom  I  referred  a  little  while  ago,  the  oldest  officer 
in  the  Survey,  who  has  had  fifty-six  years  of  continuous  service,  was 
called  upon  to  go  to  Annapolis  and  give  instructions  to  the  naval  offi- 
cers there  in  the  matter  of  topography,  which  he  did,  being  detailed  for 
that  purpose.  Thus  it  will  be  seen,  in  the  matter  of  the  execution  of 
hydrography  by  civilians,  it  was  done  by  them  for  a  long  time,  and  by 
them  exclusively.  Now,  not  only  was  that  true,  but  at  the  present 
time  very  much  of  the  hydrographic  work  is  done  by  civilians.  It  is  a 
mistake  to  say  that  the  hydrographic  work  is  now' all  done  by  naval 
parties.  The  hydrography  I  have  constantly  referred  to  here,  the 
higher  hydrography,  the  physical  hydrography,  is  done  by  civilians, 
and  must  be  so  done.  There  is  no  question  of  this,  and  no  naval  offi- 
cer will  contend  for  a  moment  that  to  day  we  have  not  the  ablest 
hydrographers  in  the  men  in  the  civil  corps  of  the  Coast  Survey.  All 
physical  hydrogra])hy,  practically,  including  the  study  of  currents  and 
tides,  and  all  work  of  tha^  nature,  has  to  be  done  by  civil  officers. 
Now,  when  this  question  was  up  ten  years  ago,  a  compai  ison  was  made 
as  to  the  efficiency  of  the  civil  officers  in  this  hydrographic  work  and 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      119 

naval  officers  in  the  hydrograpliic  work,  and  1  will  just  read  to  illus- 
trate this  comparison : 

A  comparison  of  the  average  work  done  each  year  for  a  period  of  years  by  civil- 
ians with  the  annual  average  done  by  naval  officers  for  a  similar  period  shows  that 
a  naval  force  96  per  cent  greater  than  a  civilian  force  produces  only  1  per  cent 
increase  in  the  number  of  soundings;  in  the  number  of  miles  run  in  sounding  only 
47  per  cent;  number  of  records  only  2  per  cent,  and  hydrographic  maps  only  39  per 
cent. 

This  I  believe  to  be  a  fair  comparison,  and  was  made  as  reported,  as 
you  can  see,  in  this  official  document  to  which  I  have  referred  many 
times,  which  was  certainly  not  prejudicial  in  favor  of  civilian  hydrog- 
raphers. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Who  made  that  comparison? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  think  it  was  made  under  the  direction  of  the 
superintendent.  It  was  made  by  a  gentleman  in  the  employ  of  the 
Geological  Survey  now,  and  has  been  for  several  years,  Mr.  Marcus 
Baker. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Was  that  made  a  part  of  the  record  of  that  investiga- 
tion? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Yes,  sir;  you  will  find  it  in  the  report  of  the 
commission  in  1884,  in  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Oolonna. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Will  you  let  me  call  your  attention  to  some  of  Mr. 
Colonna's  testimony  on  that  point? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Yes,  sir. 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  quote  from  page  604  of  the  testimony,  volume  4,  Sen- 
ate Mis.  Doc,  first  session.  Forty-ninth  Congress.  Mr.  Colonna  was 
asked  the  following  questions  by  the  chairman: 

By  the  Chairman  : 

Q.  Of  this  hydrographic  work  which  is  done  under  the  Coast  Survey  $242,000  of 
the  expense  is  performed  by  naval  officers? — A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q.  And  is  paid  out  of  the  Navy  appropriation? — A    Yes,  sir. 

Q.  And  $88,000  of  that  expenditure  is  performed  by  the  Coast  Survey,  proper? — 
A.  No,  sir. 

Q.  By  whom? — A.  It  is  paid  for  by  the  Coast  Survey  and  performed  by  naval 
officers. 

Q.  Out  of  the  Coast  Survey  appropriation? — A.  Yes,  sir;  and  is  expended  by  the 
naval  officers. 

Q.  So  that  all  expenditures  for  hydrographic  work  is  made  by  the  naval  officers? — 
A.  Yes,  sir;  practically  so. 

Q.  And  the  work  is  performed  bv  naval  officers? — A.  Yes,  sir;  at  an  expense  of 
$330,000,  all  told. 

Q.  Is  that  work  all  performed  under  the  immediate  supervision  of  what  you  call 
the  hydrographic  inspector? — A.  All  except  the  physical  hydrography.  There  is  no 
law  for  such  an  officer  as  the  hydrographic  inspector  that  I  can  tind,  except  the 
Buperintendent's  will.  The  office  of  hydrographic  inspector  is  mentioned  in  para- 
graph 57  of  the  regulations  in  connection  with  subsistence.  I  do  not  call  to  mind 
any  other  mention  of  it.  He  has  been  allowed  to  assume  the  function  within  the  last 
few  years  of  conducting  the  hydrographic  work  almost  according  to  his  own  views. 

Q.  And  the  control  of  the  superintendent  of  the  Coast  Survey  is  merely  nomi- 
nal?— A.  That  is  what  it  has  amounted  to  formerly. 

Q.  Are  your  opportunities  of  observation. sufficient  to  tell  us  whether  or  not  that 
work  is  being  well  performed;  what  is  your  opinion  about  that? — A.  Yes,  sir;  I 
think  the  work  is  well  performed  in  the  main ;  in  some  instances  with  distinguished 
ability,  for  instance,  the  steamer  Blake's  past  season's  work,  directed  by  Lieut.  Pills- 
bury,  is  something  that  all  may  be  proud  of. 

Q.  I  understood  you  to  say  a  moment  ago  that  the  bone  of  contention  was  this 
Hydrographic  Office? — A.  The  hydrographic  work  of  the  Coast  Survey  is  what  the 
Navy  has  been  striving  after  for  a  long  time — they  virtually  do  all  the  work  as  it  is. 

That  is  Mr.  Colonna's  testimony. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  A  great  deal  of  that  is  entirely  correct,  but  I 
would  like  to  take  that  up  point  by  point  if  I  had  the  time.    The  com- 


120      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

mittee  will  bear  me  out  in  the  statement  that  I  have  testified  to  the 
value  of  naval  officers  on  the  work.  As  to  the  intimation  that  the 
superintendence  of  this  work  being  merely  nominal,  it  is  certainly  not 
true  in' the  last  four  or  five  years.  The  hydrographic  inspector  is  con- 
stantly consulting  the  superintendent  every  day,  and  the  superintend- 
ent has  actual  control  over  that  as  he  has  all  other  office  work.  I  do 
not  know  of  anything  else  in  this  statement  to  which  it  is  important  to 
refer;  that  is,  any  other  essential  feature.  The  work  of  the  Blake  was, 
of  course,  a  very  excellent  piece  of  work,  and  has  been  commended  very 
highly,  and  it  deserves  commendation.  There  is  no  contention  with  the 
hydrographic  inspector  in  the  office  at  the  present  time,  and  has  not  been 
for  a  long  time.  The  most  amicable  relations  exist,  and  the  hydro- 
graphic  inspector  and  myself  are  in  entire  harmony  with  regard  to  the 
operations  of  the  Coast  Survey,  and  also  in  regard  to  this  question 
before  us. 

Now,  if  I  am  allowed,  I  will  speak  of  one  more  fact  in  connection  with 
this  subject,  which  is  an  index  of  the  character  of  work  done  in  hydrog- 
raphy. All  work  which  is  original  in  its  character  and  which  is 
regarded  as  contribution  to  that  science  is  i)ublished  in  the  form  of 
papers,  appendices,  or  something  of  that  sort,  and  out  of  140  hydro- 
graphic  ])apers  that  have  been  published,  the  civilians  have  contributed 
129  and  naval  officers  have  contributed  11.  Some  of  the  contributions 
of  those  officers  are  very  valuable  contributions,  and  I  would  not  like 
to  be  without  them. 

The  whole  question  of  tidal  investigations,  which  is  a  very  important 
thing  in  connection  with  hydrography,  has  been  under  the  directions  of 
civilians,  and  must  always  be  there,  in  my  judgment,  if  it  is  to  be  cor- 
rectly carried  on.  All  advances  which  have  been  made  in  tidal  theo- 
ries, to  which  I  referred,  I  think,  earlier  in  my  testimony,  have  been 
advances  made  by  civilians. 

Mr.  Enloe.  If  you  will  allow  me  to  ask  you  in  regard  to  these  papers 
in  hydrography,  you  say  129  were  furnished  by  civilians  and  11  by 
naval  officers.  Is  not  that  due  to  the  fact  it  is  the  function  of  those 
civilians  who  do  work  of  tliis  character  to  furnish  these  papers,  and 
naval  officers  are  confined  to  the  work  in  the  field? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  In  some  degree,  yes.  But,  of  course,  naval  offi- 
cers, in  connection  with  fieldwork,  have  found  matters  which  they 
thought  of  sufficient  importance  to  justify  their  being  published;  and 
this  is  also  true  with  our  own  officers. 

Mr.  Enloe.  It  was  not  incumbent  upon  the  naval  officers,  but  it  was 
upon  the  others f 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Not  necessarily  so;  it  was  only  incumbent  upon 
the  civilians  in  case  anything  was  developed  which  was  of  sufficient 
importance,  but  I  do  not  mention  this  fact  at  all  as  any  reflection  upon 
the  services  of  naval  officers  in  regard  to  hydrography.  I  am  simply 
trying  to  put  the  civil  officers  engaged  in  hydrography  on  a  proper 
basis.  It  has  been  represented  that  they  have  done  none  of  it,  that 
they  never  have  done  it,  and  I  simply  want  to  show  the  committee  that 
there  is  no  greater  mistake  than  this  assumption,  and  that  thp  civilians 
are  perfectly  comi)etent  to  do  any  kind  of  hydrography  which  is  required, 
and  have  done  it. 

Another  assertion  which  has  been  made,  or  criticism  that  has  been 
made,  in  favor  of  this  bill  is  that  the  execution  of  hydrography  under 
a  Treasury  bureau  is  an  anomaly,  and  it  is  strange  that  such  a  thing 
should  be  found  in  the  Treasury  Department.  Well,  the  history  of 
that,  presented  early  in  this  hearing,  I  think,  was  sufficient  to  satisfy 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      121 

you  in  regard  to  this,  that  the  experiment  was  tried  twice  of  naval 
control  and  proved  to  be  unsatisfactory  in  both  cases,  and  I  would  like 
in  addition  to  ask  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  under  the  Treasury 
Department  we  have  the  Life-Saving  Service,  which  is  very  directly 
related  to  commerce,  and  the  Light  House  Board,  which  is  directly 
in  the  interest  of  commerce,  almost  entirely  so;  tlie  Bureau  ot  Nav- 
igation is  also  directly  in  the  interest  of  commerce,  the  Marine 
Hospital  is  another  thing  of  which  the  same  can  be  said,  and  the  Rev- 
enue Marine,  which  not  entirely  in  the  interest  of  commerce,  yet  is 
more  nearly  a  naval  establishment  than  any  of  the  others,  and  yet  all 
of  these  bureaus  that  I  have  mentioned  in  addition  to  the  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey  have  long  been  under  the  Treasury  Department,  and 
it  seems  to  me  very  properly  so. 

The-Light  House  Establishment,  I  may  refer  to  that  as  being  sim- 
ilar in  very  many  respects  to  the  organization  of  the  Coast  Survey. 
There  naval  officers  are  detailed  for  a  period  of  years.  There  Array 
officers  are  detailed  and  civilians.  I  am  myself  a  member  of  the  Light- 
House  Board  and  there  is  one  other  civilian  member.  The  other  mem- 
bers are  three  naval  officers  of  high  rank  and  three  Army  officers  of 
high  rank  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  is  chairman  of  that  board. 
It  is  a  civil  board,  distinctly  so,  although  these  Army  and  naval  officers 
are  detailed  to  and  serve  on  it  and  do  so  very  efficiently,  yet  it  would 
be  a  very  great  mistake  to  have  it  transferred  to  the  Navy,  as  has 
been  sometimes  contended  for  by  vsome  few  naval  officers  who  are 
rather  grasping  in  their  desires.  It  seems  to  me  the  whole  Light- 
House  Establishment  ought  naturally  to  be  where  it  is.  The  fact 
is  you  must  discriminate  between  the  Navy  of  the  United  States  and 
the  commerce  of  the  United  States.  When  you  come  to  compare  these 
two  things  you  will  find  theratio  something  enormous,  and  the  commerce 
of  the  United  States  is  enormously  greater  in  importance  and  value 
than  the  cost  of  all  the  vessels  of  the  Navy. 

I  made  this  comparison  a  few  years  ago.  The  Coast  Survey  is  for 
the  benefit  of  the  commerce  of  the  United  States  and  not  especially  for 
the  Navy.  It  is  for  commerce.  Where  there  is  one  naval  vessel  enters  a 
harbor  there  are  thousands  of  merchant  vessels.  It  is  for  the  latter 
class  that  our  work  must  be  done. 

This  is  true  of  other  bureaus.  The  Life-Saving  Service,  the  Light- 
House  Board,  the  Bureau  of  Navigation,  all  belong  to  the  same  class* 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  would  like  to  ask  you,  do  you  think  there  is  any  more 
connection  of  all  these  commercial  bureaus  to  the  Treasury  Depart- 
ment than  they  would  be  to  the  Agricultural  Department? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  think  so;  yes,  sir.  Of  course  I  will  say  this, 
I  believe  it  would  be  very  wise  to  collect  all  of  these — and  that  has  been 
attempted  once  or  twice — to  collect  all  of  these  bureaus  to  which  refer- 
ence has  been  made  into  a  great  department  of  i)ublic  works  which,  in 
my  judgment,  is  the  ideal  thing  to  look  forward  to;  but,  as  we  do  not 
have  a  department  of  public  works,  we  have  theTreasury  Department^ 
which  is  a  very  large  Department,  and  one  or  two  bureaus  additional 
do  not  materially  interfere  with  its  operations,  and  besides,  there  is  a 
good  deal  in  the  relation  which  exists  between  these  various  bureaus. 
Now,  the  work  of  the  (^oast  Survey  and  the  Light-House  Board  is  very 
closely  related.  We  interchange  our  information  that  we  get  almost 
every  hour,  every  day,  and  that  relation  is  such  as  could  only  exist 
between  two  bureaus  of  the  same  department.  Our  relation  with  the 
Marine- Hospital  Corps,  theBureau  of  Navigation,  and  Life-Saving  Serv- 
ice is  also  very  close,  and  we  get  a  good  deal  of  information  from  all 


122       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

these  people  and  this  close  relationship  is  one  which  we  consider  to  be 
desirable. 

Mr.  Money.  Do  yoii  think  all  of  these  several  bureaus  you  mention 
ought  to  be  under  one  administrative  head? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Yes,  sir. 

The  Chairman.  That  has  been  done  in  France! 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  think  it  was  done  under  the  ministry  of  public 
works. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  You  say  this  has  been  attempted? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  think  such  bills  have  been  introduced  into 
Congress. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  There  must  have  been  some  reasons  for  not 
doing  it,  then. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  do  not  know,  I  am  sure;  and  I  am  not  quite 
certain  that  bills  have  been  introduced,  but  I  do  know  this,  that  it  has 
been  considered  because  I  have  a  pamphlet  on  my  table  [mblished  a 
few  years  ago  sent  to  me  recently  in  which  a  strong  argument  is  made 
for  combining  all  of  these  into  one  department. 

Mr.  Money.  1  suppose  such  an  organization  is  more  desirable  than 
anything  else,  it  matters  not  what  you  call  it. 
.     Mr.  Enloe.  Department  of  Commerce  is  a  better  title. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Now,  I  have  been  diverted  to  a  point,  which  I 
think  will  come  in  properly,  and  that  is  a  very  brief  statement  of  how 
tbis  work  is  done  abroad,  and  after  that  I  will  be  pleased  to  answer  any 
questions  as  fully  as  I  can.  In  the  first  place  I  found  it  was  somewhat 
difficult  to  collect  this  information,  although  aware  of  some  of  the  facts, 
but  not  all  of  them,  and  I  found  particular  difficulty  in  getting  all  of 
this  information.  1  read  a  little  detail  of  the  plan  as  maintained  in 
foreign  surveys,  and  in  each  of  the  organizations  of  the  surveys  of 
these  nations  I  have  also  given  the  number  of  the  standing  army  in 
each  country,  because  the  division  of  public  work  of  this  character 
between  the  civilian  and  the  military  organizations  in  any  country 
might  be  assumed  to  be  based  in  some  degree  on  the  relative  strength 
of  these  organizations. 

administration  and   ORGANIZATION   OF  FOREIGN   SURVEYS. 

AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 

Surveys  are  conducted  by  the  Military  Geographical  Institute,  under 
the  war  department.  The  personnel  of  the  institute  consists  of  staff 
officers,  line  officers,  civilian  assistants,  noncommissioned  officers, 
soldiers,  and  contract  workmen.  The  head  of  the  institute  and  the 
heads  of  the  various  divisions  are  staff  officers.  The  staff  has 
entire  charge  of  the  scientific  part  of  tlie  survey,  but  the  line  officers 
are  detailed  to  aid  in  the  work.  The  officers  of  the  staff  who  belong 
to  the  institute  are  selected  from  imvate  life  by  com])etitive  examina- 
tion, and  receive  their  promotions  in  a  special  category  of  their  own, 
independent  of  the  other  officers  of  the  staff'.  This  particular  corps 
of  officers,  therefore,  has  a  constitution  only  affiliated  to  the  military 
organization. 

Area,  240,942  square  miles.    Army,  316,942  (peace  footing). 

BELGIUM. 

Geodetic  and  topographic  surveys  conducted  under  the  war 
department,  by  staff'  officers  of  the  army.  Area,  11,373  square  miles. 
Army,  47,225  (peace  footing). 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      123 


Surveys  executed  by  the  geographical  and  statistical  bureau,  under 
civil  administration.  Officers  of  the  topographic  brigade  of  the  army 
and  mining  engineers  may  be  detailed  for  duty  under  the  bureau. 

FRANCE. 

Surveys  by  the  geographical  service  of  the  army,  executed  by  the 
general  stati'.  Astronomical  deteiminations  by  astronomers  of  the 
Paris  Observatory. 

Area,  204,092  square  miles.     Army,  564,603  (peace  footing). 

ITALY. 

Surveys  by  Geographic  Institute  under  the  war  department. 
Area,  110,623  square  miles.     Permanent  army,  247,809. 

GREAT  BRITAIN. 

Surveys  under  commissioners  of  works.  Organization  Koyal  Engi- 
neers, civilians.    Oori)s,  five-sixths  civilian. 

INDIA. 

Department  of  home,  revenue,  and  agriculture.  Organization, 
royal  engineers  and  civilians. 

NORWAY. 

Surveys  under  the  department  of  the  interior,  conducted  by  a  geo- 
graphic commission.  Commission  composed  of  several  directors  of 
departments  of  the  Government.  Organization  mixed,  civil,  and  mili- 
tary. 

NETHERLANDS. 

Geodetic  commission.    Civil  administration  and  organization. 

PORTUGAL. 

Geographic  Institute.  Civil  administration.  Organization  mixed, 
civil,  and  military. 

PRUSSIA. 

Prussian  Royal  Geodetic  Institute.  Civi]  administration.  Topog- 
raphy by  general  staff  of  the  army. 

RUSSIA. 

Military  Cartographic  Institute,  conducted  by  general  staff.  Area, 
8,644,100  square  miles;  army,  868,672,  peace  footing. 

Tlie  Chairman.  Did  you  mention  England? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Yes,  sir;  I  mentioned  Great  Britain  and  this 
statement  is,  as  nearly  true  as  it  is  possible  for  me  to  make. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  I  would  suggest,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  if  it  be 
agreeable  to  the  professor,  for  him  to  continue  his  remarks  on  Friday 
and  that  we  adjourn  now. 

Thereupon  the  committee  adjourned  to  meet  on  Friday,  June  1, 1894. 


124      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 


Committee  on  Naval  Affairs, 

Friday,  June  i,  1894. 
The  Committee  on  Naval  Affairs  this  day  met,  Hon.  Amos  J.  Cam- 
mings  in  the  chair. 

The  Chairman.  The  committee  will  come  to  order  and  the  state- 
ment of  Prof.  Mendenhall  will  be  resumed. 


STATEMENT  OF  PROF.  T.  C.  MENDENHALL— Continued. 

Prof.  Mendenhall  then  addressed  the  committee.    He  said: 

Mr.  Chairman  and  gentlemen  of  the  committee,  just  at  the  close  of 
the  hearing  the  other  day  I  was  referring  to  another  criticism  which 
was  passed  upon  the  oi)erations  of  this  Bureau,  in  that  it  had  been 
asserted  that  the  cost  of  the  work  was  steadily  increasing,  and  this 
had  been  brought  about,  as  was  intimated,  by  means  of  a  quiet  exten- 
sion of  its  work  and  the  appropriations.  I  wish  to  positively  state 
to  the  committee  that  this  is  absolutely  contrary  to  the  facts  in  the 
case. 

An  examination  of  the  annual  appropriations  made  for  this  Bureau 
in  the  last  five  years  will  show  not  an  increase  but  on  the  contrary  a 
continuous  decrease  of  the  cost  of  the  Bureau.  The  appropriations 
and  the  estimates  have  been  actually  growing  smaller.  I  have  here  a 
chart  which  I  drew  up  some  months  ago  illustrating  this  fact,  which 
will  give  you  a  graphic  picture  of  it  very  quickly.  You  will  see  this 
chart  shows  appropriations  since  1871,  the  annual  appropriations  for 
the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  including  also  the  estimates.  That  is 
to  say  the  red  curves  which  are  here  show  the  estimates  which  have 
been  made  and  the  blue  curves  show  the  appropriations  which  have 
been  made.  This  black  line  is  the  $500,000  line.  When  the  red  and 
blue  curves  pass  above  or  below  it,  it  indicates  that  the  appropriations 
have  been  proportionately  mure  or  less  than  $500,000.  The  diagram  is 
divided  here  simply  for  convenience  into  periods  of  a  various  number 
of  years  to  distinguish  the  administrations  of  the  several  Superintend- 
ents. If  you  follow  those  two  red  and  blue  lines  you  will  see  what 
occurred  in  this  matter  of  appropriations  and  estimates  for  the  last 
five  years. 

Then  again  here  you  will  see  during  these  three  years,  that  is  from 
the  beginning  of  the  estimates  and  appropriations  made  under  my  own 
administration,  they  have  been  falling,  less  always  than  they  have  ever 
been  before  except  a  single  year  during  the  beginning  of  Mr.  Thorn's 
administration,  wi  en  for  special  reasons  well  known  to  most  of  you  the 
Survey  was  decidedly  reduced  in  its  appropriations,  but  at  the  present 
time  the  appropriations  are  very  much  smaller  even  than  that,  and  I 
call  attentinn  to  the  fact  that  this  does  not  result  by  act  of  Congress, 
but  it  is  by  the  act  of  the  Superintendent  that  these  reductions  have 
been  made.  That  is,  during  this  year  the  appropriations  and  estimates 
are  identical,  and  the  Appropriation  Committee  appropriated  the  amount 
which  was  requested  by  the  Superintendent.  Last  year  there  was  a 
difference  of  perhaps  some  $30,000  or  $40,000;  I  nave  forgotten  exactly 
what  the  difference  is.  Now,  the  estimates  for  the  present  year  are 
much  smaller  in  proportion  than  they  have  ever  been  made  for  the  Sur- 
vey. This  diagram  shows  a  considerable  fluctuation  in  the  cost  of  the 
Survey  principally  in  the  early  days,  in  the  seventies,  along  in  1874, 
1875,  and  1876.    About  that  time  the  cost  increased  quite  considerably, 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      125 

and  then  it  diminished  quite  considerably;  yet  during  the  last  five 
years  it  shows  a  steady  diminution  in  cost  as  is  shown  both  by  the  esti- 
mates of  the  Superintendent  and  the  actual  appropriations. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Let  me  ask  you  one  question  there  before  you  put  that 
map  up,  where  did  your  administration  begin  on  that  map? 

Frof.  Mendenhall.  The  first  appropriation  made  under  my  admin- 
istration was  in  1891.  I  came  in  at  the  fall  of  188i),  and  Jhe  estimates 
for  the  following  year  had  then  been  made. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Were  not  your  estimates  submitted  to  the  Fifty-first 
Congress  greater  than  the  appropriations  made  in  tlie  Fiftieth  Con- 
gress. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  The  first  estimates  submitted  under  my  admin- 
istration were  estimates  iDrepared  and  made  out  previous  to  my  coming 
into  the  office,  and  the  result  of  first  conference  1  had  wath  the  Appro- 
priation Committee,  or  the  chairman  of  the  committee,  was  that  they 
wanted  me  to  revise  and  resubmit  the  estimates. 

Mr.  Enloe.  That  was  in  the  Fifty-first  Congress? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Yes,  sirj  the  first  Congress  under  my  adminis- 
tration, and  then  these  estimates  were  accepted  absolutely  by  the  com- 
mittee as  I  reported  them,  and  they  were  for  the  succeeding  year  also. 

Mr.  Enloe.  The  Committee  on  Appropriations  sent  them  back  to 
you  for  revision,  I  refer  to  the  first  estimates. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Not  officially. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Well,  the  chairman  of  the  committee  did? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  It  was  the  result  of  a  conversation  with  the 
chairman  of  the  committee.  I  will  say  this,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  I  dis- 
covered that  the  estimates  had  been  made  on  the  same  basis  many 
estimates  were  made,  the  practice  being,  as  I  was  informed  when  I 
came  into  this  work,  and  I  think  it  is  quite  generally  true  of  other 
bureaus,  that  estimates  were  made  very  largely  in  excess  of  what  you 
really  expected  to  get,  with  the  expectation  that  the  Committee  on 
Appropriations  would  very  largely  reduce  them. 

Mr.  MoiSEY.  They  realize  that  fact? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  They  do,  and  when  I  came  into  the  office  and 
found  that  all  these  first  estimates  were  made  out,  at  my  own  request  I 
revised  the  estimates,  announcing  to  the  committee  at  that  time  my 
policy  in  the  future  would  be  to  estimate  for  precisely  what  I  thought 
the  Bureau  needed. 

Mr.  Enloe.  The  estimates  you  recollect  were  made  by  your  prede- 
cessor? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Yes,  sir;  they  were  made  by  my  predecessor, 
Mr.  Thorne,  because  he  left  the  office  before  I  came  in. 

Mr.  Enloe.  And  they  were  not  made  by  you? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  They  were  not  made  by  me.  When  I  came  in, 
as  I  say,  in  the  latter  part  of  August  the  estimates  were  found  prepared 
and  I  had  little  to  do  with  them  except  to  send  them  in.  At  that  time 
I  did  not  know  very  much  about  the  necessities  of  the  Bureau,  but  by 
the  time  the  estimates  came  around  to  be  actually  considered  by  the 
committee  I  was  then  familiar  with  the  work  and  knew  something 
about  the  expenditures  which  would  have  to  be  made  under  them,  and 
I  was  also  told  by  my  own  officers  that  those  estimates  were  really 
larger  than  the  necessity  of  the  work  demanded,  I  think,  because  it 
was  the  expectation  that  the  committee  would  revise  them,  and  I  then 
stated  to  the  committee  that  I  did  not  believe  in  that  mode  of  making 
estimates,  nor  have  I  changed  my  attitude  in  that  respect  since,  and  the 
committee  has  for  several  years  in  succession  given  me  precisely  what  I 


126       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

have  asked  for,  and  indeed  in  one  case  they  gave  me  more  than  I  asked 
for. 

Mr.  Enloe.  At  that  point  I  want  to  call  your  attention  to  the  state- 
ment in  Executive  Document  No.  180,  which  contains,  1  believe,  a  letter 
from  you  on  this  subject  submitted  to  the  Fifty-second  Congress  at  its 
first  session.     You  state  there; 

The  origiuaLestimates  for  the  expenditures  of  the  Survey  during  the  year,  begin- 
ning at  tliat  date,  were  prepared  within  a  few  weeks  after  I  assumed  the  duties  of 
Superintendent  and  tlicrefore  necessarily  before  I  had  opportunities  of  learning 
much  of  the  relative  strength  or  weakness  of  the  several  branches  of  the  service  or 
for  determining  the  wisest  distribution  of  expenditures  among  these  branches  in 
order  to  secure  an  ethcient  and  economical  administration.  They  were  substantially 
the  same  as  those  of  previous  years,  with  such  additions  and  changes  as  naturally 
occur  in  such  a  serv^ice.  The  amount  asked  for  was  considerably  greater  than  that 
finally  appropriated,  as  has  been  the  case,  without  exception,  in  all  of  the  previous 
years  of  the  history  of  the  Survey. 

On  the  occasion  of  their  first  consideration  by  the  Appropriations  Committee,  early 
in  1890,  I  suggested  certain  changes,  which  a  better  knowledge,  resulting  from  sev- 
eral months'  experience,  indicated  as  desirable.  The  committee  then  requested  rae 
to  withdraw  the  estimates  and  revise  them  in  accordance  with  maturer  judgment, 
and  to  incorporate  such  changes  in  the  organization  as  would,  in  my  opinion,  tend  to 
increase  its  efficiency  without  increasing  its  cost.  After  a  careful  consideration  of 
the  whole  subject,  including  consultations  with  the  chiefs  of  divisions,  the  assist- 
ant in  charge  of  the  office,  and  most  of  all  the  older  field  officers,  a  new  set  of  esti- 
mates were  suhmitted,  which  were  accepted  by  the  Appropriations  Committee  and 
made  part  of  the  sundry  civil  bill,  practically  without  modification. 

The  enactment  of  this  as  a  law  on  August  30,  1890,  necessitated  and  contemplated 
certain  changes,  which  are  exhibited  in  the  accompanying  lists,  together  with  all 
others  made  during  the  year  1890. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Now,  od  that  point  I  want  to  ask  you  who  revised  the 
salary  list  in  the  Coast  JSurvey  at  the  timej  who  were  chiefs  of  divis- 
ions; who  did  that  work? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Mr.  Chairman,  may  I  refer  first  to  the  question 
of  revision,  which  is  a  question  that  has  been  several  times  touched 
upon?  Mr.  Enloe  has  suggested  some  new  points,  to  which  I  will  reply 
that  I  am  willing  to  accept  my  letter  written  at  that  date  as  a  n  ore 
accurate  statement,  since  what  I  stated  just  now  was  purely  from  mem- 
ory. When  I  was  appointed  to  the  office,  I  came  to  Washington  and 
took  the  oath  of  office  and  then  told  the  President  that  it  would  be 
absolutely  necessary  for  me  to  be  absent  several  weeks  to  attend  to 
some  private  matters.  I  then  went  away,  and  when  I  came  back  every- 
thing, of  course,  was  unfamiliar.  I  knew  nothing  of  the  appropriations 
made,  and  these  estimates  were  drawn  up  by  my  assistants,  precisely 
as  stated  there  in  my  letter,  and  I  will  accept  that  as  the  correct  state- 
ment. Touching  upon  the  matter  of  the  revision  of  salaries,  wliich  is 
the  point  which  Mr.  Enloe  raised,  it  is  impossible  forme  at  the  present 
time  to  name  with  absolute  accuracy  the  persons  with  whom  I  con- 
sulted, but  I  will  say  I  consulted  with  the  older  people  in  the  office.  I 
particularly  consulted  iAIr.  Schott,  who  is  the  oldest  officer  we  have  in 
the  Bureau,  the  next  oldest  to  Prof.  Davidson,  and  Mr.  Whiting,  who 
was  here  the  other  day,  and  I  consulted  Mr.  Tittmann,  whom  I  had 
known  quite  well,  and  Mr.  Colonna,  the  assistant  in  charge  of  the 
office,  who,  in  consequence  of  that,  position,  which  he  had  filled  for 
several  years,  came  in  close  contact  with  all  these  officers,  and  I  pre- 
sume I  consulted  others. 

The  Chairman.  What  was  that  revision  of  salaries'? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  It  was  a  revision — that  is  the  better  word,  as 
the  history  of  the  case  shows  there  was  not  much  change;  there  was 
but  a  small  change  in  the  total  amount  of  the  appropriations.  There 
were  some  salaries  increased,  as  I  referred  to  the  other  day,  and  you 


TRANSFER    OF    COAST    AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY.  127 

will  remember  I  also  showed  the  other  day  that,  even  after  that  increased 
compei»sati(m  had  been  made — some  on  account  of  promotion,  that  the 
great  majority  of  these  officers  still  to-day  receive  a  lower  compensa- 
tion than  tliey  did  ten  years  ago,  in  consequence  of  the  fact  that  the 
subsiistence  had  been  abolished.  The  particular  object  of  this  provision 
was  to  remove  a  large  number  of  irregular  amounts  that  had  been  appro- 
priated, such  as  $1,420  and  $2,337,  and  such  amounts  as  that,  which 
grew  up  mostly  in  small  additions  from  time  to  time,  and  it  w*as  felt  to 
be  desirable  to  take  the  whole  salary  list  and  arrange  it  by  certain 
defiuite  steps,  and  $200  a  step  was  adopted  and  I  will  frankly  say,  as 
far  as  I  could,  1  made  the  arrangement  without  a  reduction  in  the  sal- 
aries, because  there  was  no  salary  I  knew  of  that  ought  to  be  reduced, 
and  there  were  a  great  many  I  think  ought  to  be  increased. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Let  me  ask  you  right  there,  is  it  not  a  fact  that  the  sal- 
aries of  the  assistants,  those  who  had  their  salaries  increased,  had  an 
average  increase  of  $110.29? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  That  may  be  so. 

Mr.  Enloe.  And  that  the  plate  printers  got  a  decrease  of  from  $100 
to  $330? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  That  may  be  true.  I  will  say  that  the  plate 
printers  got  a  decrease,  but  I  am  not  quite  sure  there  was  an  average 
increase  of  the  assistant. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Was  it  your  impression  that  the  plate  printers  received 
too  much  compensation? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  That  was  my  impression. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Was  it  not  a  fact  that  many  of  them  resigned  and  went 
to  places  in  the  Bureau  of  Printing  and  Engraving? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Yes,  sir;  and  it  is  a  fact  that  these  same  men 
came  back  to  us  and  asked  lobe  reappointed,  all  except  one,  and  they 
would  have  been  very  glad  to  be  reappointed.  In  regard  to  that  matter, 
lam  sorry  I  have  not  with  me  the  Congressional  Record  containing  a  copy 
of  the  debate  on  this  question,  as  I  would  be  glad  to  read  the  defense 
of  my  action. 

The  Chairman.  Let  me  ask  you  some  questions:  The  plate-printers, 
did  they  belong  to  any  trades  union  or  organization? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  do  not  know,  sir.  I  did  not  inquire  whether 
they  did  or  not. 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  can  answer  that  question ;  they  did. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  want  to  make  a  full  statement  in  regard  to 
that  matter,  and  I  am  sorry  I  did  not  bring  with  me  the  Record  con- 
taining the  defense  of  my  action  by  Mr.  Herbert,  now  Secretary  of  the 
Navy. 

Mr.  Money.  You  can  send  a  copy  of  it  to  us. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  In  which  he  takes  the  position,  in  defending 
my  action  in  that  regard,  that  as  a  rule  those  officers  of  the  Government 
who  do  the  higher  quality  of  work  receive  a  smaller  compensation  than 
that  paid  by  great  railroads  and  commercial  organizations  to  the  same 
quality  of  men;  whereas,  on  the  other  hand 

The  Chairman.  Did  they  receive  the  same  wages  the  plate-printers 
received  at  the  Bureau  of  Engraving  and  Printing? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  will  come  to  that  in  a  moment  and  give  you  a 
full  history— on  the  other  hand,  says  Mr.  Herbert,  those  who  received 
a  smaller  compensation,  those  who  do  work  which  does  not  require  an 
amount  of  skill  and  training  and  professional  knowledge,  receive  in  the 
Government  service  higher  than  they  do  outside.  That  you  will  find  in 
Mr.  Herbert's  speech  on  that  occasion.    Now,  to  come  to  an  actual 


128      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

statement  of  what  occurred.  The  statement  was  made  to  me  by  sev- 
eral persons,  I  think  first  by  the  chief  of  the  engraving  division,  that 
the  work  was  costing  more,  that  we  were  paying  more  than  current 
rates  to  the  plate-printers  and  also  to  some  other  people — 1  think  we 
were  also  paying  more  to  the  people  in  the  instrument  division,  such  a 
statement  was  made  to  me — than  was  customary  to  be  paid  outside 
or  was  necessary,  and  that  this  was  one  direction  in  which  judicious 
economy  could  be  exercised. 

Mr.  Money.  That  is,  they  could  get  more  pay  with  you  than  they 
could  get  outside? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Yes,  sir ;  I  investigated  it,  of  course,  before  I 
took  any  action.  I  called  before  me  the  foreman  of  our  plate  printing 
establishment  who  was  also  a  practical  plate  printer,  and  if  I  mistake 
not  is  also  a  member  of  the  Plate-Printers'  Union  in  good  standing,  and 
asked  him  what  his  judgment  was  about  this  matter.  I  said,  ^'  I  am 
ignorant  about  this  and  I  wish  to  do  exactly  what  is  right."  And  he 
said,  '^  These  men  are  now  being  paid  more  than  they  ougnt  to  receive." 

Mr.  Enloe.  What  is  his  name? 

Mr.  MendexNHAll.  His  name  is  Moore.  I  have  his  written  state- 
ment. I  even  took  the  x)recaution  to  ask  him  to  put  his  statement  in 
writing,  that  he  could  procure  outside  of  our  Bureau  plenty  of  able  men 
to. do  this  work  at  a  decidedly  smaller  salary.  Now,  of  course,  1  felt 
it  was  incumbent  upon  me  with  that  statement  in  hand  to  make  that 
recommendation.  I  would  have  been  false  to  my  duty  as  a  Government 
officer  if  I  had  not. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Do  you  remember  Mr.  Moore's  initials? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  think  it  is  F.  W.  Moore.  He  was  our  fore- 
man then,  and  he  is  still  foreman  of  the  office. 

The  Chairman.  And  is  still  a  member  of  the  plate-printers'  organi- 
zation ? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  As  far  as  I  know. 

Mr.  Money.  He  would  not  likely  be  there  if  he  was  not. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  But  to  go  on  with  the  history  of  these  changes. 
After  Mr.  Moore  told  me  that  this  was  the  case,  I  could  not  conscien- 
tiously avoid  making  the  recommendation  which  I  did.  I  did  not  want 
to  discharge  these  men,  so  I  told  them  they  could  go  on  with  their 
work  at  tliis  reduced  salary.  Now,  Mr.  Chairman,  as  to  the  comparison 
of  the  wages  paid  these  men  and  plate-printers  in  the  employ  of  the 
Bureau  of  Engraving  and  Printing,  I  know  of  no  possible  means  to 
make  a  comparison.  In  that  office  they  are  paid  by  piecework,  and  in 
our  office  they  are  i)aid  by  the  month  and  the  work  is  entirely  different. 
We  print  great  copperplates,  the  largest  i)rinted  in  the  country  and 
possibly  in  the  world.  We  used  to  use  hand  presses,  but  I  relieved 
those  men  of  that  much  to  their  gratification  by  the  introduction  of 
power  presses,  but  at  first  we  had  to  do  that  by  hand  power.  It  is 
impossible  to  make  a  comparison  ot  wages  paid  by  the  two  bureaus, 
and  the  only  answer  I  can  make  to  your  question  is  this:  that  one  or 
two  of  these  men  who  refused  to  accept  this  reduction  were  very  glad 
to  get  emploj^ment  again  in  our  office,  and  not  long  afterwards 
returned  and  sought  reemployment  in  the  Coast  Survey.  The  fact  is, 
our  work  is  much  easier  there.  In  the  Bureau  of  Engraving  and  Print- 
ing the  men  earn  a  large  compensation  provided  they  work  very  hard, 
as  it  is  all  piecework.  With  us  they  work  by  the  month,  which  they 
usually  prefer.  We  have  not  had  the  slightest  difficulty  and  we  have 
not  had  the  slightest  friction  with  the  trades'  union. 

Mr.  Money.  What  was  the  proportion  of  the  reduction? 


TRANSFER    OF    COAST   AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY.  129 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  have  forgotten.  Probably  $1,000  or  $1,300  all 
told,  and  perhaps  Mr.  Enloe  has  it  in  his  mind.  Whether  the  reduction 
was  $30  or  $130,  or  what,  I  can  not  tell,  but  I  can  furnish  these  facts  if 
you  wish  them,  but  I  can  not  tell  now,  as  tliat  was  so  long  ago.  I  did 
that  with  the  impression  that  it  was  the  right  thing  for  me  to  do. 

Mr.  Enloe.  If  there  is  no  objection,  I  want  to  say  the  Plate  Printer's 
Union  did  disprove  of  this  action  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  and 
I  have  a  copy  of  some  resolutions  presented  to  me  recently  adopted  by 
the  local  organization  here  approving  my  action  in  attempting  to  defend 
the  rights  of  those  people  as  they  understood  it  in  the  Coast  and  Geo- 
detic Survey. 
Those  resolutions  are  as  follows : 

Washington,  D.  C,  April  28, 1894. 
Hon.  B.  A.  Enloe  : 

Dear  Sir:  At  a  regular  stated  meeting  of  the  Plate  Printers' Protective  Union, 
5041,  American  Federation  of  Labor,  working  under  the  auspices  of  the  National 
Printers'  Union  of  America,  held  on  the  above  date,  the  following  resolutions  were 
unanimously  adopted : 

Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  this  Union  are  hereby  extended  to  the  Hon.  B.  A. 
Enloe,  of  Tennessee,  for  the  able  manner  in  which  he  defended  the  workiugman's 
cause  in  a  speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives  in  May,  1892,  and  again 
on  the  16th  day  of  March,  1894,  when  he  exposed  the  outrages  perpetrated  by  the 
Coast  Survey  officials  on  the  workingmen  employed  in  that  Bureau  by  having  their 
salaries  reduced  in  1890  so  that  the  officials  might  have  theirs  increased. 

Therefore,  be  it  further  resolved.  That  we,  the  Plate  Printers^  Protective  Union, 
recommend  the  Hon.  B.  A.  Enloe,  of  Tennessee,  to  the  workingmen  of  the  country  and 
the  State  of  Tennessee  for  their  kind  consideration  and  support. 

Given  under  our  hand  and  seal  of  this  Union  this  28th  day  of  April,  1894. 
[l.  s.]  Eugene  Bettes,  President. 

John  Wood,  Secretary, 
Isaac  Girrodette, 
Wm.  Johnson, 
John  T.  Connors, 
Arthur  Small, 
E.  W.  McRae, 

Committee. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  simply  mean  to  say  I  myself  know  of  no  diffi- 
culty. We  have  never  had  any  difficulty  in  hlling  the  places  as  soon  as 
they  became  vacant.     It  has  been  long  since  a  vacancy  has  occurred. 

The  Chairman.  You  have  not  had  any  communication  with  the 
Union  organization? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  None  at  all. 

Mr.  Enloe.  If  you  will  allow  me,  I  would  like  to  ask  a  question 
before  getting  from  this  subject  any  further  in  regard  to  the  revision  of 
the  salary  list  and  the  increases.  I  find  here  the  following  assistants 
were  increased  at  that  time:  A.  T.  Mosman,  salary  increased  from 
$2,800  to  13,000;  William  H.  Dennis,  salary  increased  from  $2,400  to 
$2,800;  Cleveland  Eockwell,  salary  increased  from  $2,400  to  $2,600; 
J.  W.  Donn,  salary  increased  from  $2,400  to  $2,G00;  William  Eimbeck, 
salary  increased  from  $2,300  to  $2,400;  Edward  Goodfellow,  salary 
increased  from  $2,300  to  $2,400;  H.  L.  Whiting,  salary  increased 
from  $2,300  to  $2,400;  J.  W.  Parsons,  salary  increased  from  $1,800  to 
$2,200. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  He  is  not  an  assistant  in  the  Survey;  he  is  in 
the  office  force*? 

Mr.  Enloe.  H.  G.  Ogden,  salary  increased  from  $2,200  to  $2,400;  O. 
H.  Tittmann,  salary  increased  from  $2,200  to  $2,400;  E.  Smith,  salary 
increased  from  $1,800  to  $2,000;  F.  H.  Parsons,  salary  increased  from 
$1,400  to  $1,800. 
45G1 9 


130  TRANSFER    OP"    COAST    AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Mr.  Parsons  resigned  as  an  assistant  and  was 
made  librarian. 

Mr.  Enloe.  But  he  was  an  assistant  at  the  time! 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  He  was  subassistant  I  think  at  the  time  he 
resigned. 

Mr.  Enloe.  C.  T.  Jardella,  salary  increased  from  $1,500  to  $1,600; 
W.  Q.  Vinal,  salary  increased  from  $1,500  to  $1,000;  J.  W.  Baglow, 
salary  increased  from  $1,500  to  $1,000;  V.  H.  Vanorden,  salary  increased 
from  $1,500  to  $1,600. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  Avould  like  to  call  the  attention  of  the  com- 
mittee to  the  fact  tliat  if  the  statement  should  be  made  as  to  the  total 
increase  of  the  cost  of  the  corps  before  this  revision  and  after  it,  it 
would  be  better  for  the  purj^oses  of  comparison.  I  wish  to  remind  you 
that  this  corps  stands  very  largely  in  a  line — that  is  to  say,  it  is  a  mat- 
ter of  lineal  priority — and  the  result  is,  when  a  single  promotion  is  made, 
one  single  increase  of  salary  makes  a  vacancy  which  may  affect  the 
salaries  of  20  people,  and  a  great  deal  of  that  which  has  been  read  is  due 
to  that  tact,  elust  at  that  time  there  were  vacancies  existing.  I  have 
forgotten  what  they  were;  but  I  remember  by  the  death  of  a  single 
assistant,  a  man  named  Hergesheimer,  which  made  a  vacancy  in  a 
$2,800  i)lace.  You  can  see  in  order  to  promote  one  man  to  fill  that 
vacancy  a  movement  takes  place  along  the  whole  line. 

Mr.  Money.  Let  me  suggest  to  you  to  take  this  list  Mr.  Enloe  has 
and  mark  opposite  each  man  his  place,  and  whether  he  has  a  scientific 
or  clerical  place,  and  also  if  he  was  promoted? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  can  tell  you  now  by  looking  at  the  list. 

Mr.  Money.  1  should  prefer  that  it  go  on  the  record  just  exactly 
what  position  each  one  held,  what  his  duties  were,  whether  they  were 
scientific  or  clerical! 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  will  do  that,  and  I  am  ready  to  explain  to  you 
in  regard  to  two  of  these  men.  Mr.  John  W.  Parsons  served  for  a  long 
time,  many  years,  as  the  accountant  of  the  Survey.  He  was  really  the 
disbursing  agent,  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  he  had  not  had  that  title. 
At  the  beginning  of  Mr.  Thome's  administration  in  18S5,  the  disburs- 
ing agent  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  was  removed  by  the  Treas- 
ury Department,  much  to  theinconvenienceof  the  business  of  the  Coast 
Survey,  and  when  I  took  charge  that  inconvenience  was  represented  to 
me  very  strongly ;  I  appreciated  these  reasons  very  fully  then  and  I  have 
been  of  the  same  mind  ever  since.  I  therefore  requested  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  to  make  a  disbursing  agent  for  the  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey,  which  he  did,  and  he  appointed  Mr.  John  W.  Parsons,  he  hav- 
ing served  eighteen  years  at  that  time  and  now  over  twenty- three  years 
in  the  Coast  Survey.  He  was  at  the  time  the  accounting  clerk.  He 
was  made  disbursing  agent,  and  promoted,  therefore,  from  $1,800, 
which  he  received  as  a  fourth- class  clerk.    That  explains  his  promotion. 

The  Chairman.  There  had  not  been  a  disbursing  agent  before  that 
time! 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  There  was  one  up  to  1885,  I  think,  but  at  that 
time  the  disbursement  of  the  funds  was  taken  to  the  Treasury  Depart- 
ment, and  it  increased  the  labor  vastly,  as  I  showed  at  the  time  by  let- 
ters to  the  Appropriations  Committee  and  it,  I  think,  was  broughtoat  on 
the  floor  of  the  House,  also,  that  the  making  of  Mr.  Parsons  disbursing 
agent  resulted  in  actual  economy  in  the  disbursement  of  the  money.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  it  did,  and  it  is  very  distinctly  shown.  In  regard  to 
Mr.  F.  H. Parsons,  that  was  the  case  of  a  man  who  was  promoted  simply 
from  a  subassistant  at  $1,400  to  $1,800.    Mr.  Parsons  had  been  subas- 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      131 

sistaiit  for  a  number  of  years,  but  he  was  peculiarly  adapted  to  the 
duties  of  librarian.  He  had  a  physical  weakness,  being  lame.  This 
was  found  to  interfere  to  some  extent  with  his  duties  in  the  field,  and, 
therefore,  he  was  made  librarian  and  given  simply  the  salary  which  the 
librarian  had  always  had;  that  was  not  a  promotion,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
but  simply  a  transfer  of  a  man  from  one  division  to  another.  Mr.  Par- 
sons is  still  librarian,  and  has  been  so  ever  since  his  appointment.  I 
will  give  you  all  this  information  in  writing  in  regard  to  this  matter. 

Mr.  Money.  And  I  wish  you  would  be  careful  to  state  whether  their 
duties  are  scientific  or  clerical. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  All  are  field  officers  with  the  exception  of  those 
two  whom  I  have  mentioned. 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  would  like  to  ask  this  question,  please.  You  stated 
at  the  time  you  made  this  revision  you  were  inexperienced  in  the 
Coast  Survey  and  necessarily  had  to  rely  upon  the  advice  of  your  lead- 
ing assistants.  Do  you  think  it  was  very  reliable  advice  upon  which 
to  make  increases  of  salary  when  these  men  passed  upon  the  increase 
of  their  own  salaries  f 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  They  did  not  pass  upon  the  increase  of  their 
own  salaries. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Did  thev  make  suggestions'? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  There  was  no  man  who  had  the  slightest  sus- 
j)icioii  the  salaries  would  be  increased.  1  think  that  is  a  suspicion 
that  only  needs  to  be  made  to  be  rejected. 

Mr.  Enloe.  The  question  arises  how  their  salaries  were  increased ; 
if  you  consulted  them  and  got  their  advice  in  making  this  revision, 
how  did  their  salaries  happen  to  be  increased,  as  you  say  you  would 
not  know  in  regard  to  this ! 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  The  older  men  in  the  service  have  reputations 
not  only  known  in  this  country  but  all  over  the  world.  The  younger 
men  I  did  not  know,  and  it  was  in  regard  to  the  younger  men  that  the 
older  men  were  consulted.  More  than  that,  as  I  have  already  stated, 
many  promotions  among  the  older  men  were  simply  those  which  took 
place  on  a  vacancy,  and  I  was  naturally  less  liable  to  make  a  mistake  by 
following  the  regular  routine  than  in  any  other  way,  but  I  may  say  here 
that  1  am  willing  to  have  this  committee,  or  any  other  properly  author- 
ized body,  to  take  a  census  of  opinion  of  all  the  assistants  of  the  Coast 
and  Geodetic  Survey  in  regard  to  these  promotions  which  took  place 
at  that  time  as  to  whether  they  w^ere  wise  or  proper.  I  thiniv  the  uni 
versal  judgment  of  the  corps  is  that  they  were  wise.  As  I  say,  certain 
of  these  men — Mr.  Mosman,  Mr.  Whiting,  Mr.  Eimbeck,  Mr.  Tittmann, 
and  that  class  of  men  were  known  everywhere,  and  I  knew  some  of 
them  personally  before  I  came  into  the  Coast  Survey,  some  I  knew  by 
reputation,  and  I  was  guided  by  their  opinion. 

Mr.  Enloe.  You  went  in  office  in  1889? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Yes.  sir. 

Mr.  Enloe.  What  time  in  1889? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  In  the  fall  of  1889. 

Mr.  Enloe.  The  salary  list  which  you  submitted  here  the  other  day 
showing  a  percentage  between  the  salaries  since  1884  I  think  you  com- 
pared with  1893. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  1884  and  1885;  I  put  the  two  years  down,  and 
then  I  took  last  year.  The  present  year  will  make  the  same  showing 
exactly,  but  the  present  year  is  incomplete,  so  I  took  1893  because  it 
was  a  complete  year. 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  have  taken  for  the  purpose  the  period  between  1887 


w 


132       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

and  1893,  wliicli  shows  very  large  increase  in  the  salaries  since  1887. 
Is  it  your  idea  that  these  men  were  iusufficiently  comi)ensated  from 
1884  to  1887  or  1888,  when  they  began  the  system  of  increasing  the 
salaries. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  should  like  to  know  on  what  basis  that  com- 
pensation is  made  that  it  shows  a  greater  increase  in  181)3  over  1887. 

Mr.  Enloe.  These  figures  are  taken  from  the  official  rei)orts. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Have  you  included  the  subsistence  these  men 
received  in  both  of  those  years  ! 

Mr.  Enloe.  It  is  the  period  between  1887  and  1893;  I  do  not  know 
that  this  statement  shows  it. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  You  can  get  it  by  application  to  the  disbursing 
agent,  but  it  is  absolutely  necessary  in  order  to  make  this  comparison. 
Now,  I  distinctly  stated  the  other  day  that  that  was  included  in  the 
statement  I  put  before  the  committee.  I  showed  that  that  was  included. 
These  gentlemen,  ten  years  ago,  received  certain  allowances  for  subsist- 
ence, and  their  total  annual  income  from  salary  added  to  subsistence 
is,  of  course,  the  total  amount  they  receive.  They  receive  a  certain  total 
amount  of  money  for  their  services.     That  is  the  practical  outcome  of  it. 

Mr.  Enloe.  And  subsistence  is  not  given  now  in  addition  to  the 
salary.     There  is  no  subsistence*? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Subsistence  is  assumed  to  be  administered  on 
this  basis,  that  it  shall  simi)ly  compensate  the  field  officer  for  the  addi- 
tional expenses  to  which  he  is  subject  on  account  of  the  x)ayment  of  his 
own  board  when  he  is  in  the  field  over  what  he  would  be  subject  to 
when  he  was  in  the  office.  For  instance,  when  a  field  officer  comes  to 
Washington  or  is  in  Washington  he  receives  no  allowance  for  subsist- 
ence, nor  receives  any  allowance  for  subsistence  when  he  is  at  home, 
if  his  home  be  other  than  Washington.  Take  the  case  of  Prof.  iJavid- 
son,  living  in  San  Francisco,  who  receives  no  subsistence  while  residing 
in  San  Francisco,  but  the  moment  he  goes  to  the  field  he  receives  sub- 
sistence, and  we  try  to  administer  that  subsistence  so  it  will  compen- 
sate for  the  increased  amount  of  the  expenses ;  but  in  the  old  days,  in 
1884  and  before,  subsistence  was  regarded  by  all  authorities,  and  by 
the  assistants  themselves,  as  part  of  the  compensation. 

As  I  stated,  officers  remaining  in  Washington  all  the  year  round 
were  allowed  $2  or  $3  a  day  for  subsistence  and  the  consequence  was 
that  salaries  at  that  time  were  higher  and  men  received  more  money 
for  their  work  than  they  do  at  the  present  time.  I  think  if  you 
apply  the  same  rule  to  1887  you  will  find  that  it  is  still  true.  Now, 
answering  your  other  question,  I  do  believe  that  these  men  were  not 
properly  compensated  after  the  removal  of  this  subsistence,  although 
I  thought  that  method  of  comi^ensation  was  wrong.  I  have  always 
contended,  from  the  moment  I  came  into  the  office,  that  I  believed  the 
sudden  removal  of  this  subsistence,  such  a  sharp  and  sudden  reduction 
in  the  compensation  of  these  men,  which  put  them  below  what  they 
had  been  receiving,  was  very  hard  on  them  and  any  small  advances 
that  I  have  been  able  to  make  them,  and  which  have  been  very  small, 
and  which  have  come  in  the  natural  way  by  death,  resignation,  etc.,  I 
have  been  very  glad  to  do. 

Mr.  Enloe.  There  is  a  good  part  of  the  year  a  field  officer  is  not 
engaged  in  actual  work  in  the  field? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Yes;  sometimes  half  a  year,  and  sometimes 
even  more,  and  sometimes  very  much  less.  But  these  field  ofiicers  are 
engaged  nearly  the  year  round  in  the  field,  dependent  upon  circum- 
stances.   Take  Alaska,  the  length  of  the  season  there  is  restricted  to 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      133 

about  six  months,  and  it  is  very  largely  restricted  to  that  in  the  north- 
ern part  of  the  United  States,  but  we  send  people  South  in  the  winter, 
as  many  as  we  ean,  and  they  work  there. 

Mr.  Enloe.  When  they  discontinue  their  work  in  the  field  they  return 
to  the  office  in  Washington? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  That  depends  entirely  upon  whether  they  are 
instructed  to  do  so  or  not.  Sometimes  they  do  and  sometimes  not. 
They  are  allowed  traveling  expenses  here.  Those  who  are  sent  here 
by  the  instructions  of  the  Superintendent  to  consult  and  advise  with 
the  Superintendent  are  allowed  by  act  of  Congress  subsistence  during 
the  time  they  are  here.  However,  that  is  not  a  common  thing.  It 
happens  rarely  that  a  man  is  brought  here  on  that  account.  Usually 
they  come  from  the  field  and  their  subsistence  stops  when  they  get 
here.  But  in  fact  there  is  a  regulation  which  allows  the  Superintend- 
ent in  his  discretion  to  allow  the  subsistence  to  run  for  a  certain  lim- 
ited number  of  days  after  the  assistant  reaches  home  in  order  to  allow 
him  to  select  a  proper  boarding  place,  etc. 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  understand  you  have  here  such  a  tiling  in  connection 
with  the  Geodetic  Survey  during  the  winter  months  as  a  geodetic  con- 
vention composed  of  these  assistants? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  We  did  have  this  last  winter;  yes,  sir.  1 
brought  to  this  office  five  or  six  assistants,  and  those  assi.stants  brought 
here  were  allowed  subsistence  according  to  the  regulations.  That 
that  convention  Avas  of  the  very  utmost  importance  I  need  hardly  say. 
Let  me  go  back  and  say  this  is  the  second  conference  we  have  had,  the 
first,  as  you  are  doubtless  aware,  being  that  of  the  topographt^rs.  I 
found  here  a  corps  of  about  50* men,  many  of  whom  had  served  for 
thirty  or  forty  years  in  the  Government,  who  did  not,  in  some  cases, 
know  each  other  personally;  and  I  found  them  engaged  in  the  same 
line  of  work  scattered  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  dei)endent 
entirely  upon  traditions  and  through  correspondence,  and  that  kind  of 
thing,  for  a  knowledge  of  methods  and  operations  and  therefore  I 
think  if  in  my  administration  of  the  Coast  Survey  there  is  one  thing  of 
which  I  am  proud  it  is  the  organization  of  these  two  conferences.  I 
called  these  topographers  together,  and  they  spent  several  weeks  here 
in  studying  methods  of  topography  and  various  other  work  which  I 
need  scarcely  discuss  at  great  length,  for  their  report  is  published  in  vol- 
ume, which  has  received  the  highest  praise  everywhere,  and  is  referred  to 
as  a  standard  authority  on  those  questions.  That  was  two  years  ago. 
This  past  season,  for  the  same  i)urpose,  I  arranged  to  have  a  conference 
of  the  geodesists,  those  specially  engaged  in  doing  triangulation  and 
astronomical  work,  and  they  also  labored  assidiously  and  profitably, 
and  I  think  no  just  criticism  can  be  made  against  a  policy  of  that  kind, 
as  the  cost  was  so  small  and  the  results  were  so  valuable. 

^ow,  if  you  will  allow  me,  I  would  like  to  go  back  to  the  question 
which  was  raised  in  regard  to  the  dismissal  of  these  people.  I  men- 
tioned the  matter  of  instrument-makers,  and  I  will  con(;lude  what  I 
started  to  say  about  that.  I,  at  the  same  time,  reduced  the  compensa- 
tion of  the  instrument-makers  and  dismissed  sever.il  from  the  service, 
and  I  did  that  knowing  fully  and  entirely  what  I  was  doing.  It  so 
happens  that  my  life  has  been  such  that  I  know  something  about 
instrument-making,  although  I  do  not  know  anything  about  plate- 
printing,  as  I  have  never  had  anything  to  do  with  it.  I  have  worked 
in  the  shop  myself  and  I  know  what  it  is,  and  I  know  what  fine  instru- 
ments are,  having  used  them  for  a  quarter  of  a  century.  The  result 
was  I  found  the  instrument  division  of  the  Coast  Survey  in  what  I  con- 


134      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

siuered  a  very  bad  condition.  Men  were  paid  salaries  there  far  beyond 
anything  they  could  get  outside.  More  than  that,  they  had  become 
indolent  and  lazy,  and  some  declared  that  they  could  never  be  dis- 
missed from  the  service,  because  their  influence  was  such  that  it  was 
impossible. 

That  is  the  condition  I  found  in  that  bureau.  Those  in  charge  of 
that  division  will  tell  you  these  men  were  reported  as  being  inefficient. 
I  dismissed  several  of  those  men,  and  then  when  I  had  an  opportunity 
to  revise  the  appropriation  1  reduced  their  compensation,  and  I  reduced 
it  only  so  far  as  to  still  make  it  easy  for  me  to  secure,  whenever  1  want, 
the  finest  instrument-makers  in  the  country.  There  are  not  very  many 
of  them,  but  we  have  no  trouble  in  getting  them.  The  highest  com- 
pensation we  pay  an  instrument-maker  is  $1,200,  but  when  there  is 
taken  into  consideration  the  permanency  of  the  work,  the  sliort  number 
of  hours  of  work,  and  the  number  of  holidays  which  they  have,  all  of 
which  I  think  is  perfectly  legitimate  for  them  to  consider,  it  is  easily 
seen  why  I  am  able  to  procure  the  best  instrument-makers  in  the 
country  for  this  amount.  Before  I  undertook  this  I  examined  into  the 
matter  by  correspondence  with  fine  instrument-makers  in  the  country, 
with  Brashear,  of  Allegheny,  the  Queen  Company,  of  Philadelphia, 
and  others.  1  visited  these  establishments,  and  I  know  precisely  what 
the  men  are  paid. 

Mr.  Money.  Do  you  have  any  trouble  about  getting  competent  instru- 
ment-makers ? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  have  had  to  hunt  a  little  to  get  the  highest 
type  of  them.  For  instance,  a  vacancy  occurred  just  a  year  ago.  A 
man  resigned,  who  is  nowback  at  work  again.  He  left  here  at  the  time, 
but  he  came  back.  After  the  original  discharge  of  those  two  or  three 
men  from  the  service,  I  tried  to  put  myself  into  communication  with 
the  best  talent  in  that  direction  in  the  whole  country,  and  I  did  that 
by  means  of  correspondence  with  those  men  of  whom  I  spoke,  and  also 
by  advertising.  1  advertised  in  the  newspapers  in  the  West  and  East 
for  instrument-makers.  The  result  of  that  was  that  I  came  into  a  cor- 
respondence with  perhaps  two  or  three  dozen  of  the  finest  instrument 
makers  in  the  country.  I  could  only  appoint  two  or  three,  but  I  wrote 
them  all,  and  told  them  to  keep  me  informed  constantly  in  regard  to 
their  location,  so  that  when  there  is  any  vacancy  I  could  appoint  one  of 
them.  They  have  done  so,  and  in  that  way  I  got  the  last  one,  who  is 
one  of  the  finest  workmen  I  have  ever  seen.  I  followed  him  up  by 
letters. 

Mr.  Money.  Is  the  present  force  satisfactory  to  you? 

Prof.  Mendenpiall.  Entirely  so.  I  found  this  man  in  St.  Louis, 
where  he  last  was,  and  I  got  him  from  there.  Now,  that  is  what  I  have 
to  say  in  regard  to  that  act,  and  I  do  not  believe  it  needs  any  defense. 

Xow,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  will  have  to  proceed  very  hurriedly  in  the 
remainder  of  this  because  I  do  not  wisli  to  trespass  ui)on  the  patience 
of  the  committee  further,  but  there  are  some  important  points  that  I 
must  press  upon  you,  and  if  you  will  pardon  me  I  will  do  so.  Allow 
me  to  submit  here  a  letter  from  the  Secretary  transmitting  a  letter 
from  me  containing  all  of  the  detailed  expenditures  of  the  Coast  Survey, 
of  which  I  have  spoken  several  times,  which  has  been  forwarded  to 
Congress  ever  since  the  year  1885,  therefore  Congress  has  always  had 
in  its  iDossession  the  most  perfect  detailed  account  of  the  expenditures 
of  this  Bureau,  and  there  can  be  no  reason  for  criticism  in  that  direc- 
tion. 

Now,  I  want  to  refer  very  briefly  to  a  newspaper  clipping  which  I 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      135 

have  here,  purporting  to  contain  selections  from  a  letter  of  the  Acting 
Secretary  of  the  Navy,  or  Assistant  Secretary  McAdoo,  and  I  trust  I 
am  not  going  beyond  the  proper  limits  of  the  discussion  of  a  question 
of  this  kind  when  I  do  this,  because  there  are  several  points  here  which 
I  think  should  have  attention.  Most  of  the  points  Mr.  McAdo  raises 
here,  advocating  the  transfer  of  a  portion  of  this  Bureau  to  the  Navy 
Department,  have  already  been  touched  upon,  and,  therefore,  1  will 
not  take  that  up  in  connection  with  this  argument,  but  I  will  call  your 
attention  to  this  clause: 

Congress  would  then  have  an  itemized  estimate  for  the  entire  work  before  it  each 
year,  and  a  complete  and  accnrate  statement  of  expenditures  could  be  easily  pre- 
pared at  any  time,  so  that  Congress  and  the  people  could  always  know  just  what 
the  work  of  the  Coast  Survey  was  costing. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  has  always  been  done,  and  that 
complete  and  itemized  estimates  were  always  before  Congress.  The 
particular  thing  I  want  to  reply  to  is  the  intimation  in  this  paper  that 
the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  authorities  have  attempted  to  deny  and 
overlook  or  ignore  the  relations  of  the  Navy  and  their  services  in  con- 
nection with  this  work.  This  is  the  statement  in  the  x>aragraph  which 
I  now  read,  where  he  says : 

As  an  evidence  of  the  deliberate  attempt  to  cover  up  the  connection  of  the  naval 
establishment  with  the  present  work,  your  attention  is  called  to  the  statement  in 
the  annexed  letters,  wherein  it  is  shown  that  the  names  of  naval  officers  participat- 
ing in  the  work  of  the  survey,  and  which  by  long  custom  were  usually  affixed  to  the 
charts,  have  been  recently  taken  therefrom.  On  the  other  hand  the  Coast  Survey 
office  has  constantly  on  dress  parade  a  long  list  of  its  employes,  in  the  full  dress  of 
their  official  distinctions  and  learned  titles. 

Now,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  woukl  imagine  before  writing  a  paragraph 
like  that  one  would  take  the  trouble  to  look  and  see  whether  there  was 
any  foundation  for  such  a  thing,  and  I  am  sorry  to  say  I  fear  that  was 
not  done. 

The  Chairman.  Is  that  correct? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  am  going  on  to  state  whether  it  is  correct  or 
not,  as  1  wish  to  explain  this.  In  the  lirst  place,  referring  to  the  gen- 
eral proposition,  there  has  never  been  any  disposition  on  the  part  of 
the  Coast  Survey  to  conceal  or  in  any  way  ignore  the  value  of  the  serv- 
ices of  the  U.  S.  Navy.  On  the  contrary,  we  have  taken  the  same  care 
to  give  due  credit  to  naval  officers  as  we  have  to  represent  the  value 
of  the  work  of  our  civil  assistants.  If  you  will  consult  any  of  our 
reports  you  will  find  there  has  never  been  a  naval  ofBcer  connected 
with  the  Survey  whose  name  is  not  there,  and  whose  name  is  not 
attached  to  every  bit  of  work  he  has  done.  There  is  no  naval  officer  who 
has  prepared  an  appendix  for  which  he  has  not  had  full  credit  for  that 
work.  There  is  positively  and  absolutely  no  distinction  between  the 
treatment  of  a  naval  officer  and  a  civil  officer  in  connection  with  our 
publications,  except  one,  and  that  is  in  favor  of  the  naval  officer  and 
not  the  civilian.  That  is  to  say,  the  statement  as  made  here  that  the 
Coast  Survey  has  always  on  dress  parade  a  long  list  of  its  employes  in 
full  dress  of  their  official  distinctions  and  learned  titles  is  without  foun- 
dation. Mr.  Chairman,  I  have,  to  satisfy  myself  since  seeing  this,  had 
several  persons  busily  searching  the  charts  prepared  by  the  Coast  Sur- 
vey, as  I  was  sure  one  has  never  appeared  with  the  professional  title  on 
it,  and  I  have  not  found  a  single  case  in  which  a  civilian  has  appeared 
on  that  chart  with  any  other  than  his  plain  name  and  the  word  assist- 
ant. 

Mr.  Money.  Why  vshould  it  not  be  so  ? 


136  TRANSFER    OF    COAST    AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  It  is  right  and  proper  it  should  be  so.  As  to 
the  Navy,  we  have  always  given  the  full  naval  rank  in  every  case,  and 
that  is  right.  1  have  added  afterwards  the  title  which  we  have  giveu 
the  officer  as  au  assistant  of  the  Coast  Survey,  which  many  of  them,  I 
am  pleased  to  say,  are  glad  to  have  added.  Now,  that  is  a  fact.  If 
you  will  look  at  the  thousands  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  charts 
we  have  printed  you  will  see  that  is  the  case  right  straight  through, 
and  we  have  never  deviated  from  that.  Examine  our  charts  and  you 
will  see  we  have  there  given  the  naval  officers  their  full  rank.  I  have 
had  all  other  i^ublications  also  examined  and  I  found  two  or  three 
cases  in  which  men  have  ha<l  the  title  of  "  professor  "  applied  to  them, 
but  in  hunting  these  cases  down  I  have  found  invariably  they  were 
papers  which  were  prepared  by  those  men  before  they  were  attached 
to  the  Coast  Survey.  Take,  for  instance,  Prof.  Bache.  He  was  known 
by  the  title  of  professor  by  everybody,  and  was  for  a  long  time  a  pro- 
fessor before  coming  to  the  Coast  Survey,  and  liad  published  a  valuable 
work  on  magnetics,  and,  after  coming  to  the  Coast  Survey,  the  Coast 
Survey  published  that  paper,  which  is  a  very  valuable  contribution. 

That  is  one  instance.  AVe  found  in  one  case  a  professor  had  written 
a  paper  on  tides,  to  which  the  title  of  professor  had  been  applied.  In 
modern  times  there  is  only  a  single  case,  a  single  exception.  Mr. 
Wainwright  remembered  and  called  to  my  attention  that  in  the  report 
of  the  topographical  conference  to  which  I  referred  there  was  a  trans- 
lation made  from  the  French  by  one  of  the  assistants,  Mr.  Hodgkins, 
to  whose  name  were  attached  the  letters  ''  C.  E.,"  civil  engineer,  which 
was  his  degree.  This  being  so,  I  maintain  that  tins  criticism  is  not  jus- 
tified. The  Coast  Survey  people  have  never  been  on  dress  parade  with 
their  titles,  and  have  been  entirely  just  and  fair  to  the  Navy. 

Mr.  Money.  To  what  extent  in  foreign  charts  do  they  print  the  titles 
to  the  engineers  f 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  1  am  coming  to  that,  because  the  next  criticism 
is  here:  ' 

As  an  evidence  of  tlie  deliberate  attempt  to  cover  up  the  connection  of  the  naval 
establishment  with  the  present  work,  your  attention  is  called  to  the  statements  in 
th«  annexed  letters  wherein  it  is  shown  that  the  names  of  naval  officers  participat- 
ing in  the  work  of  the  survey,  and  which  by  long  custom  were  usually  affixed  to  the 
charts,  have  been  recently  taken  therefrom. 

I  would  like  to  call  the  careful  attention  of  the  committee  to  the  his- 
tory of  that  matter.  What  are  called  authorities  on  the  charts  you 
will  understand  when  I  show  you  this  chart  [exhibiting  same].  This 
will  give  you  a  good  idea  as  to  the  conditions  of  things  up  to  a  certain 
period  in  regard  to  the  charts.  I  have  drawn  with  a  red  pencil  lines 
around  this  space,  where  you  find  printed  that  the  triangulation  was 
done  by  J.  Ferguson  and  E.  Blount,  assistant:  topography  done  by 
H.  L.  Whiting,  S.  A.  Gilbert,  A.  M.  Harrison,  etc.,  assistants;  hydrog- 
raphy done  by  Lieut.  Commander  11.  Wainwright,  T.  A.  Craven,  H. 
Mitchell,  F.  H.  Gerdes;and  P.  F.  Ness,  assistants.  On  that  chart  you 
see  that  much.  That  is  wliat  we  call  the  list  of  authorities,  giving  the 
names  of  all  who  have  been  engaged  in  this  work.  Now,  on  this  sheet 
[exhibiting]  those  engaged  in  the  triangulation  are  all  given  here.  The 
triangulation  is  by  F.  W.  Hassler,  the  first  Superintendent  of  the  Coast 
Survey.  This  work  was  done  long  ago,  but  is  still  used  for  the  con- 
struction of  this  chart  recently  published  in  1889  during  my  adminis- 
tration; also  the  names  api)ear  of  Ferguson,  Blount,  Edwards,  etc., 
all  of  whom  are  now  dead;  Marindin,  J.  AV.  Donn,  E.  T.  Dickins,  E. 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      137 

Bradford,  and  A.  T.  Mosmaii,  assistants,  were  all  engaged  in  tliis  tri- 
angulation  at  a  later  date. 

Next  comes  those  who  were  engaged  in  topography,  who  were :  H.  L. 
Whiting,  S.  A.  Gilbert,  A.  M.  Harrison,  F.  H.  Gerdes,  E.  Boschke,  F.  W. 
Dorr,  etc.  Next  come  those  engaged  in  hydrography,  Lieuts.  W.  Maynard, 
W.  I.  Moore,  H.  B.  Mansfield,  etc.  It  shows  astronomical  observations 
were  made  by  S.  P.  Walker,  etc.  Magnetic  observations  were  made 
by  J.  Eenwick,  etc.  The  names  of  all  men  engaged  appear  upon  it. 
There  are  nearly  hfty  names  on  that  chart,  and  it  has  been  noted  for 
many  years  that  there  has  been  a  steady  growth  of  this  matter  of 
authorities  on  charts.  That  is,  these  lists  occupied  a  large  space  on 
the  charts,  and  it  became  a  difficult  question  to  decide,  although  it 
was  one  continually  arising. 

The  question  of  the  selection  of  these  names  was  determined  by  the 
chart  board.  If  a  man  had  been  sent  to  a  place  and  done  an  hour's 
work  or  a  day's  work,  oftentimes  he  felt  his  name  should  go  on  the 
chart.  We  were  continually  receiving  letters  of  complaint  of  naval 
officers,  and  of  our  own  civil  officers  as  well,  that  their  names  had  been 
omitted,  that  they  had  done  a  little  work,  and  would  like  to  see  their 
names  on  the  chart,  and  this  finally  gave  rise  to  a  discussion  which 
began  before  I  came  into  the  office. 

A  year  and  a  half  after  I  came  in  the  question  was  brought  to  a  focus 
by  the  action  of  this  chart  board  to  which  I  have  referred.  The  chart 
board  is  a  board  I  organized  after  I  came  into  the  office,  consisting  of 
the  hydrographic  iusi>ector,  the  assistant  in  charge  of  the  office,  the 
executive  officer,  the  chief  of  the  chart  division,  the  chief  of  the  engrav- 
ing division,  and  the  chief  of  the  drawing  division,  who  would  meet 
regularly  in  consideration  of  all  questions  in  regard  to  the  charts, 
changes  of  charts,  issuing  charts,  etc.  They  would  submit  the  result 
of  their  meeting  to  the  Superintendent,  who  would  approve  or  disap- 
prove of  their  recommendation  as  he  saw  fit.  Now,  I  want  to  read  a 
note  of  the  proceedings  of  June  16, 1891,  when  the  following  resolution 
was  i>assed  by  this  chart  board : 

Resolved,  The  Superintendent  is  requested  to  have  the  names  of  all  persons,  except 
the  Superintendent,  removed  from  the  charts,  and  in  the  future  allow  the  name  of  no 
person  except  the  Superintendent  to  appear  on  any  chart  issued  from  the  office. 

The  reason  for  doing  that  was  the  difficulty  of  determining  among 
such  an  enormous  number  whose  name  should  go  on.  At  any  rate,  that 
proposition  came  to  me.  Now,  I  at  first  was  very  much  opposed  to 
that  action;  that  is,  I  was  loath  to  take  that  action.  My  instinct  has 
always  been,  as  the  work  of  the  Coast  Survey  shows,  to  give  the  fullest 
credit  to  every  man  in  the  service  for  the  work  he  does.  I  think  1  can 
justly  turn  to  the  publications  of  the  Coast  Survey  to  prove  that  fact. 
Whereas  before  you  had  to  hunt  a  good  deal  to  find  the  names  of 
authors  of  papers,  now  you  will  find  the  name  of  the  author  on  the 
title  page  in  the  plainest  type,  as  I  wish  to  see  every  author  given  due 
credit. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Who  constitutes  that  board  of  which  you  spoke? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  The  assistant  in  charge  oH  the  office,  Mr. 
Colonna;  the  hydrographic  inspector  was  Lieut.  Ackley;  executive  offi- 
cer. Braid;  chief  of  chart  division,  Bradford;  chief  of  drawing  division, 
Dennis;  chief  of  engraving  division,  Ogden.  This  is  dated  June  16, 
1891.  I  had  that  under  consideration  for  more  than  a  year,  and  was 
reluctant  all  the  time  to  approve  of  that  recommendation.  In  the 
meantime  I  listened  to  arguments  on  the  question,  and  I  want  to  say 
the  strongest  argument  brought  to  me  in  favor  of  this  was  brought  by 


138      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

the  representative  of  the  U.  S.  Navy,  Lieut.  Commander  Ackley,  the 
man  who  liad  started  this  movement  in  the  chart  board.  Instead  of 
originating  as  a  desire  on  the  part  of  the  vAvil  authorities  to  cut  down 
recognition  of  the  Navy,  it  originated  absolutely  with  the  representa- 
tive of  the  Navy,  and  Lieut.  Commander  Ackley  will  tell  you  so,  and 
he  presented  his  reasons  for  this  change. 

Then  about  a  year  after  this  time,  the  following  winter,  came  the 
organization  of  this  topographical  board  to  which  I  have  referred.  I 
was  still  unwilling  to  consent  to  the  recommeudation,  although  I  rea- 
lized tlie  difficulty  of  selection  and  that  we  were  filling  spaces  on  the 
charts  that  ought  to  be  tilled  by  magnetic  or  other  notes.  You  will 
observe  on  these  charts  Ave  have  a  good  many  notes  of  the  tides,  etc. 
Now,- here  is  the  space  occupied  by  authorities  on  this  chart  and  it  was 
justly  argued  this  space  could  properly  be  filled  witli  information  which 
mariners  would  like  to  have,  wliile  they  would  not  care  for  the  list  of 
authorities.  I  brought  the  question  therefore  before  the  topographical 
board,  and  before  that  board  it  ha])pencd  Lieut.  Commander  Ackley 
appeared  in  order  to  present  his  views,  and  I  quote  from  the  minutes 
of  the  conference  which  gives  a  summary  of  the  views  which  he 
expressed  on  that  occasion,  so  you  may  see  the  origin  of  this  movement. 

The  hydrographic  inspector  maintained  that  it  was  his  experience  that  nobody, 
unless  connected  with  the  Snrvey  in  some  way,  woukl  consult  or  even  read  the 
authorities  shown  on  the  charts.  He  regarded  the  practice  of  publishing  such  lists 
as  an  advertisement  of  but  little  value  for  the  names  given,  and  the  engraving  of 
such  lists  on  the  plates  retarded  the  publication  of  the  charts  and  they  were  of  no 
practical  benefit  to  anybody. 

Then  there  were  some  remarks  from  somebody  else,  and  he  added; 

The  hydrographic  inspector  upheld  his  former  opinion  and  added  that  the  charts 
being  issued  by  the  Government,  no  reference  to  the  different  governmental  sources 
from  which  the  published  data  had  been  received  need  be  made,  and  the  rule  of 
expunging  all  authorities  could  well  be  carried  out.  Printed  charts  could  not  be 
regarded  as  records,  and  many  important  authorities  were  omitted  even  now  from 
the  published  lists. 

Now  those  are  the  views  of  the  hydrographic  inspector  Avho  started 
this  movement  and  was  the  main  representative  of  the  U .  S.  Navy  in 
the  Coast  Survey. 

Now  after  this  I  authorized  or  rather  directed  two  or  three  of  my 
assistants,  I  think  Mr.  Wainwright  was  one,  to  make  an  examination 
of  the  system  of  foreign  governments  with  regard  to  it,  as  I  wanted  to 
know  wlmt  their  custom  was,  and  found  this  to  be  a  varied  custom,  as 
I  explained  in  letters  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  which  perhaps 
have  been  submitted  to  this  committee.  You  will  find  my  full  state- 
ment of  that  matter  in  those  letters.  I  found  in  some  countries  that 
there  were  no  names  whatever  published  on  the  chart;  that  the  stamp 
of  the  Government  bureau  was  considered  suflicient  authority.  In 
other  countries  the  chief  or  one  or  two  of  the  subordinates  only  appeared 
on  the  charts,  but  there  was  no  country  that  approximated  to  the  full- 
ness of  the  publication  of  authorities  the  United  States  gave  up  to  this 
time  on  its  charts.  That  was  found  to  be  a  fact  in  the  publication  of 
foreign  government  charts. 

1  would  like  to  say  here  now,  that  just  about  the  time  this  question 
was  under  consideration  I  had  a  consultation  with  the  chief  hydro- 
grapher  of  the  Navy,  and  he  said,  "  I  understand  you  are  considering 
the  matter  of  removal  of  authorities  from  the  charts,"  and  I  said  I 
was. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Who  was  that! 

Prof.    Mendenhall.    Lieut.  Commander    Clover,  and    he  said  to 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      139 

me  tills, ''  I  think  it  is  a  very  wise  move."  It  also  seemed  to  be  the  oi)iii- 
iou  of  the  geographical  board  of  which  he  was  a  member,  so  I  was 
reinforced  here  on  all  sides  and  I  had  to  take  this  action,  although  I 
would  confess  I  was  reluctant  to  do  it.  I  would  be  entirely  willing  to 
see  the  thing  go  back  as  it  was.  I  wanted  you  to  understand  fully  the 
causes  which  led  me  to  this.  After  waiting,  therefore,  until  October  14, 
1892,  here  is  the  record  I  made:  ^'Approved  October  14,  1892." 
Nearly  a  year  and  a  half  after  the  origin ial  action  of  the  board,  and 
that  was  only  because  of  those  arguments  which  were  brought  to  bear 
upon  me. 

The  Chairman.  Was  it  under  that  action  that  the  name  of  Lieut. 
Maury  was  removed  from  the  charts! 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  do  not  know  the  name  of  Lieut.  Maury  had 
been  removed. 

The  Chairman.  I  received  a  letter  the  other  day  stating  his  name 
had  been  taken  off  the  Coast  Survey  charts  because  he  had  been  in  the 
rebellion. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  would  like  to  explain  that  the  man  who  has 
more  to  do  with  what  goes  on  the  chart  and  what  goes  off  was  himself 
in  the  rebellion  the  whole  four  years,  and  it  is  hardly  likely  he  would 
do  it  on  that  account.  I  did  not  know  Mr.  Maury's  name  was  ever 
taken  off. 

Mr.  Enloe.  But  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  made  an  order  re- 
quiring the  full  names  to  be  restored? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  The  Secretary  wrote  me  a  letter,  not  exactly  an 
order,  requesting  the  former  policy  to  be  reestablished. 

Thereupon  the  committee  adjourned  to  meet  on  Tuesday,  June  5, 
1894. 


Committee  on  Naval  Affairs, 

Tuesday  J  June  5,  1894:, 

The  Committee  on  Naval  Affairs  this  day  met,  Hon.  Amos  J.  OuM- 
MiNGS  in  the  chair. 

STATEMENT  OF  PROF.  T.  C.  MENDENHALL— Continued. 

The  Chairman.  The  committee  will  come  to  order,  and  the  hearing 
of  Prof.  Mendenhall  will  be  resumed. 
Prof.  Mendenhall  then  addressed  the  committee.  He  said: 
Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Committee:  I  wish, 
first,  to  submit  a  statement  in  response  to  the  request  which  was  made 
at  the  last  hearing  with  regard  to  the  changes  Avhich  were  made  in 
respect  to  the  force  of  employes  of  the  Survey  during  the  year  1890.  I 
answered  on  that  occasion  practically  the  questions  which  were  asked 
in  regard  to  who  those  people  were,  but  for  fuller  information  I  submit 
a  copy  of  the  letter  which  was  sent  by  me  to  the  Secretary,  explaining 
in  detail  all  of  those  changes j  that  is,  every  promotion,  and  every 
decrease  or  increase  of  salary,  and  every  resignation  or  death  during 
the  whole  year  of  1890,  which  will  be  found  in  this  letter.  I  summarized 
it  the  other  day  by  saying,  that  while  there  were  many  of  this  force  who 
had  their  compensation  increased,  there  were  also  some,  a  much  smaller 
number,  who  had  their  compensation  diminished,  but  that  there  was 
what  is  usually  called  an  equalization  of  salaries,  an  adjustment,  and  in 


140      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GKODETIC  SURVEY. 

the  field  force  I  exi)laiiied  that  nearly  all  of  the  promotions  that  appear 
on  that  list,  which  is  not  a  large  number  compared  with  the  total  num- 
ber of  the  field  force,  nearly  all  are  to  be  attributed  to  the  changes 
which  occurred  during  the  year.  That  is,  there  were  two  deaths  and 
three  resignations  which  occurred  during  that  year,  and  the  promotions 
to  till  the  vacancies  thus  produced,  of  course,  make  quite  a  large  show- 
ing. I  would  repeat,  which  is  found  stated  definitely  in  this  letter,  that 
the  appropriations  for  field  operations  that  year  after  that  change  had 
been  made,  compared  with  the  appropriation  before  the  change  was 
made,  was  just  $100;  that  is,  $100  greater  in  the  sum  of  over  $119,000. 

When  I  last  appeared  before  the  committee  it  desired  certain  informa- 
tion in  regard  to  the  changes  made  in  the  force  of  emploj^es  of  the 
Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  during  the  year  1890. 

My  letter  of  March  23,  1892,  addressed  to  the  honorable  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury,  contained  in  H.  E.,  Fifty  second  Congress,  first  ses- 
sion, Ex.  Doc.  No.  180,  a  copy  of  which  I  herewith  furnish  to  the  com- 
mittee, gives  very  full  information  on  that  subject. 

I  desire  to  add,  moreover,  that  of  the  22  names  read  by  Mr.  Enloe 
all  are  field  officers,  except  F.  H.  Parsons,  who  resigned  his  position 
in  the  field  force  to  accept  the  position  of  librarian  in  the  office,  and  J. 
W.  Parsons,  who  was  promoted  from  the  position  of  accountant  in  the 
office  to  that  of  disbursing  agent. 

Of  the  29  officers  of  the  field  force  advanced  in  pay  during  the  cal- 
endar year  of  1890  the  larger  number  owed  their  promotion  to  the  two 
deaths  and  three  resignations  of  assistants  which  occurred  in  that  year, 
since  the  field  officers  stand  in  a  lineal  relation  to  one  another,  so  that 
if  a  vacancy  occurs  well  up  in  the  list  a  number  of  advances  becomes 
at  once  possible. 

The  total  amount  of  the  salary  list  for  the  field  force  was  increased 
over  that  of  the  year  before  only  $100. 

[H.  R.,  Fifty-second  Congress,  first  session,  Ex.  Doc.  No.  180.] 

Letter  from  the  Acting  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  transmitting,  in 
response  to  resolution  of  the  21st  instant,  information  relative  to  the 
changes  made  in  the  force  of  employes  in  the  coast  and  geodetic  sur- 
vey during  the  year  1890. 

Treasury  Department,  Office  of  the  Secretary, 

Washington,  D.  C,  March  28,  1802. 
Sir:  In  response  to  the  resolution  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  21st 
instant,  calling  for  information  in  regard  to  the  changes  made  in  the  force  of 
employes  in  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  during  the  year  1890,  I  have  the  honor 
to  transmit  herewith  a  detailed  statement  of  the  Superintendent  of  the  U.  S.  Coast 
and  Geodetic  Survey,  showing  all  changes  made  in  his  office  during  the  calendar 
year  of  1890. 

Respectfully,  yours, 

O.  L.  Spaulding, 

Acting  Secretary. 
The  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives. 


U.  S.  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey, 

Office  of  the  Superintendent, 

Washington,  D.  C,  March  23,  1892. 
Sir:  I  have  the  honor  to  send  herewith  information  concerning  appointments, 
dismissals,  and  changes  in  the  compensation  of  eraployds  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey  during  the  year  1890,  as  requested  by  resolution  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, received  on  the  22d  instant,  and  in  so  doing  I  beg  to  submit  a  few  remarks 
explanatory  thereof.     It  will  be  observed  that  the  greater  part  of  these  changes 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      141 

occurred  on  or  soon  after  the  30th  of  August,  which  was  the  day  of  the  approval  of 
the  sundry  civil  bill  making  approi)riations  for  the  fiscal  year  beginning  on  July  1. 

The  original  estimates  for  the  exi)enditures  of  the  Survey  during  the  year,  begin- 
ning at  that  date,  were  prepared  within  a  few  weeks  after  1  assumed  the  duties  of 
Superintendent,  and  therefore  necessarily  before  I  had  ojtportunities  for  learning 
much  of  the  relative  strength  or  weakness  of  the  several  branches  of  the  service, 
or  for  determining  the  wisest  distribution  of  expenditures  among  these  branches  in 
order  to  secure  an  efficient  and  economical  administration.  They  were  substantially 
the  same  as  those  of  previous  years,  with  such  additions  and  changes  as  naturally 
occur  in  such  a  service.  The  amount  asked  for  was  considerably  greater  than  that 
finally  appropriated,  as  had  been  the  case  without  exception  in  all  of  the  previous 
years  of  the  history  of  the  Survey. 

On  the  occasion  of  their  first  consideration  by  the  appropriations  committee, 
early  in  1890,  I  suggested  certain  changes,  which  a  better  knowledge  resulting  from 
several  months  experence  indicated  as  desirable.  The  committee  then  recj^uested 
me  to  withdraw  the  estimates  aud  revise  them  in  accordance  with  maturer  judg- 
ment, and  to  incorporate  such  changes  in  the  organization  as  would,  in  my  opinion, 
tend  to  increase  its  efficiency  without  increasing  its  cost.  After  a  careful  consider- 
ation of  the  whole  subject,  including  consultation  with  the  chiefs  of  divisions,  the 
assistant  in  charge  of  the  oiiQce,  and  most  of  the  older  field  officers,  a  new  set  of 
estimates  was  submitted  which  were  accepted  by  the  Apiiropriations  Committee  and 
made  a  part  of  the  sundry  civil  bill,  practically  without  modification.  The  enact- 
ment of  this  as  a  law  on  August  30,  1890,  necessitated  and  contemplated  certain 
changes  which  are  exhibited  in  the  accompanying  lists,  together  with  all  others 
made  during  the  year  1890. 

In  the  first  statement  will  be  found  the  changes  which  occurred  in  the  pay  of  field 
officers,  arranged  in  chronological  order.  The  field  officers  of  the  Survey  in  a  large 
degree  stand  in  a  linear  relation  to  each  other,  so  that  if  a  vacancy  occurs  well  up  in 
the  list  a  number  of  advances  become  at  once  possible.  This  is  well  illustrated  by 
the  large  number  of  promotions  in  May,  as  shown  in  the  list,  all  growing  out  of  two 
or  three  vacancies  created  by  death  and  resignation.  Several  of  the  changes  under 
date  of  July  1  are  due  to  a  similar  cause,  a  vacancy  having  been  created  in  June  by 
the  death  of  one  of  the  oldest  officers  of  the  Survey.  Other  changes  of  that  date  grew 
out  of  the  revision  of  the  list  which  became  a  law  on  AugusfBO,  as  stated  above,  but 
with  a  provision  inserted  by  the  committee  making  the  new  act  eff"ective  from  the 
beginning  of  the  fiscal  year. 

The  principal  change  wrought  by  this  act  consisted  in  the  elimination  of  salaries 
of  uneven  and  irregular  sums,  and  the  arrangement  of  a  regular  series  of  graded 
salaries,  with  uniform  increase  from  grade  to  grade.  Not  more  than  a  third  of  the 
officers  were  aff"ected  by  the  application  of  this  principle,  which  was  suggested  by 
the  committee,  some  of  the  changes  shown  in  the  list  originating  in  existing  vacan- 
cies. Two  of  the  older  officers  who  had  long  been  inactive,  having  been  placed  on 
furlough  without  pay  on  October  I,  1886,  were  stricken  from  the  listl)y  the  passage 
of  the  sundry  civil  bill,  and  another  resigned  to  become  chief  of  the  division  of 
library  and  archives.  A  distinguished  expert  of  long  experience  and  high  reputa- 
tion, whose  services  were  much  desired  in  the  Bureau,  was  transferred  from  another 
department  and  appointed  at  an  annual  salary  of  $3,000. 

All  of  these  changes,  by  which  it  is  generally  admitted  the  efficiency  of  the  corps 
was  increased,  were  made  with  practically  no  change  in  the  total  cost,  there  being 
an  increase  of  less  than  1  per  cent.  The  amounts  appropriated  for  salaries  for  the 
fiscal  years  1890  and  1891  were,  respectively,  $119,500  and  $119,600. 

Referring  to  the  changes  in  the  office  force,  it  became  evident,  before  the  question 
of  a  revision  of  the  estimates  arose,  that  some  changes  in  the  personnel  of  two  or 
three  of  the  divisions  would  be  necessary  before  that  degree  of  efficiency  which  the 
public  had  a  right  to  demand  could  be  secured.  The  assistant  in  charge  of  the 
office  and  all  of  the  chiefs  of  divisions  were  called  upon  to  consider  and  to  recom- 
mend such  changes  as  in  their  judgment  would  materially  contribute  to  the  effi- 
ciency of  the  service  without  materially  increasing  its  cost,  and  recommend  such 
reductions  as  in  their  opinion  the  good  of  the  service  demanded.  The  result  was 
the  revised  estimates  for  the  office  force  as  submitted  to  and  accepted  by  the  Appro- 
priations Committee. 

The  most  important  changes  in  the  office  force  were  confined  to  the  instrument 
division,  the  engraving  division,  aud  the  accounting  division.  Before  submitting 
estimates  for  the  instrument  division,  in  which  there  was  §omere<luction  in  salaries, 
I  made  inquiry  at  the  principal  instrument  shops  in  the  country  as  to  wages  paid 
skilled  workmen,  particularly  investigating  those  widely  known  for  the  high  char- 
acter and  skill  of  their  employes.  This  inquiry  clearly  proved  that  the  best  men 
available  could  be  obtained  for  the  sums  proposed  in  the  revised  estimates  from  that 
division,  which  were  accordingly  adopted.  The  cost  of  the  instrument  division  in 
salaries,  including  the  clerk,  before    this  change  was  made,  was  $12,900.     ScA'eral 


142       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SUKVEY, 

persons  employed  in  the  division  were  discharged  and  a  careful  search  made  for  the 
best  men  to  take  their  places.  The  places  were  tilled  and  the  cost  in  salaries  after 
the  change  was  $12,100,  a  saving  of  $800.  As  to  the  increase  in  efficiency  of  the 
division,  it  may  be  said  that  separate  estimates  made  by  four  officers  who  are  in  a 
position  to  know  very  thoroughly  what  was  done  and  what  is  now  being  done,  and 
including  both  quantity  and  quality  of  work,  place  it  at  over  100  per  cent. 

In  the  engraving  division  the  principal  reductions  were  in  the  salaries  of  plate 
printers.  In  this  case,  as  in  that  just  mentioned,  precaution  was  taken  to  ascertain 
that  plate  printers  possessing  the  necessary  experience  and  skill  could  be  obtained 
for  the  sums  named  in  the  revised  estimates,  and  positive  evidence  of  this  was 
required  before  adopting  the  estimates 

Soon  after  the  reductions  took  eilect,  those  who  had  been  employed  resigned  and 
others  were  appointed  to  fill  their  places.  The  cost  in  salaries  before  the  change  was 
for  4  plate  printers  and  2  helpers,  $7,010,  and  after  the  change  it  was  for  tlie  same 
number  of  printers  and  the  same  number  of  helpers,  $6,000,  the  salaries  of  the  help- 
ers undergoing  no  change.     There  was  thus  a  saving  of  $1,010. 

As  to  efficiency,  the  chief  of  the  division  reports  a  decided  increase,  and  in  order 
that  it  may  not  be  necessary  to  base  this  claim  of  increased  efficiency  on  personal 
opinion  only,  an  examination  of  the  records  has  been  made,  covering  seven  months 
under  the  old  conditions  and  the  corresponding  months  under  the  new,  the  only 
period  during  which  it  is  possible  to  make  a  comparison  of  the  two,  and  it  is  found 
that  during  that  period  immediately  following  the  change  4,431  more  charts  were 
printed  than  in  the  corresponding  period  before  the  change  was  made,  or  an  increase 
of  efficiency  of  nearly  25  per  cent.  It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  this  reduction  is 
in  no  way  responsible  for  the  appropriation  of  1891,  for  two  additional  plate-printers 
and  three  helpers.  On  the  contrary  had  it  not  been  made,  the  cost  of  this  additional 
force  would  have  been  much  enhanced. 

The  addition  of  these  men,  together  with  new  presses  and  power  for  running  them, 
appropriated  for  in  1891,  had  long  been  demanded,  and  Congress  had  before  been 
asked  to  grant  it.  It  grew  out  of  the  difficulty  and  often  impossibility  of  meeting 
the  demand  for  the  charts  issued  by  the  Survey,  back  orders  for  which  sometimes 
amounted  to  as  many  as  3,000.  The  completion  of  these  arrangements  in  the  near 
future  will  make  it  possible  to  supply  all  calls  with  only  a  slight  increase  in  the  cost 
of  the  producing  plant. 

In  what  was  previously  known  as  the  accounting  division  some  changes  were  made, 
resulting  in  the  diminution  of  the  cost  of  that  division  by  $1,200,  and  a  decided 
increase  in  efficiency,  as  all  who  have  had  dealings  with  it  will  agree,  the  improve- 
ment beijig  of  such  a  nature  as  to  result  in  a  saving  to  the  Government  in  many 
directions. 

In  other  divisions  of  the  office  some  changes  were  made,  some  salaries  were 
increased  by  small  amounts  and  some  decreased  by  small  amounts,  always  on  the 
recommendation  of  the  ehief  of  the  division  and  the  assistant  in  charge  of  the  office, 
their  opportunities  for  accurate  and  just  discrimination  being  greater  than  those  of 
all  others. 

To  the  cost  of  office  force,  as  apparently  shown  by  the  act  for  the  fiscal  year  1890, 
must  be  added  $3,760,  appropriated  for  salaries  under  the  head  of  office  expenses, 
which  in  the  revised  estimates  were  thrown  into  the  regular  salary  list.  Thus  the 
cost  before  the  change  in  1890  was  $136,465,  and  after  that  change  $136,630,  there  being 
an  increase  of  only  $165. 

I  have  gone  carefully  and  at  some  length  into  these  explanations  in  order  that 
members  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  in  receiving  these  lists  of  changes  elfected 
in  1890,  may  understand  the  circumstances  under  which  they  were  made,  and  to 
furnish  some  reasons  for  believing  that  the  desire  of  the  Fifty-first  Congress  that 
the  efficiency  of  the  service  might  be  increased  without  increase  of  cost  had  been 
realized.  For  further  x)roofs  of  this  and  for  evidence  that  in  all  changes  that  have 
been  made  the  good  of  the  public  service  has  alone  been  considered,  the  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey  will  cheerfully  welcome  the  most  thorough  and  exhaustive  scrutiny 
of  its  operations. 

Respectfully,  yours, 

T.  C.  Mendenhall, 

Siqierintenclent. 

The  Secretary  05"  the  Treasury, 

Washington,  D.  C. 


[Extract  from  suudry  civil  act  of  August  30, 1890.) 

*  *  *  Provided,  That  in  case  where,  by  reason  of  change  in  grade  or  otherwise 
of  the  employes  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  by  the  provisions  of  this  act  a 
new  appointment  or  designation  becomes  necessary,  no  additional  oath  of  office  shall 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 


143 


be  required,  and  compensation  at  tlie  new  rate  shall  begin  with  the  date  of  approval 
of  this  act  (amount  appropriated,  $256,061.65).  (Joint  resolutions  of  June  30,  1890, 
and  subsequent  dates,  and  sundry  civil  act,  August  30,  1890.) 

Statement  showing  changes  in  grade  and  salary  in  the  list  of  field  officers  of  the  U.  S.  Coast 
and  Geodetic  Survey  during  the  calendar  year  1890. 


Date.    1 

1 

Name. 

Change,  etc. 

Mar. 

31 

10 
5 
5 
5 
5 
5 
5 

I 

6 

i:{ 

13 
27 

22 

2 
29 
29 

29 

30 

30 

9 

31 

EUioott,  Eugene 

Assistant  at  $1,500,  resigned. 
Assistant  at  $2,300,  died. 

Apr. 
May 
May 
May 
May 
May 
May 
May 
May 
May 
Mtxv 

Bache  CM                 

Assistant  at  a.2,000.  to  assistant  at  $2,300. 
Assistant  at  $2  000,  to  assistant  at  $2,200. 

Marindin  Heiirv  L 

Perkins  ¥.  Walley 

Assistant  at  $1,800,  to  assistant  at  $2,000. 

Granger,  F.  D 

Do. 

Hodgius,  W.  C 

Preston,  E.  D 

Parsons  Erancis  EL 

Assistant  at  $1,500,  to  assistant  at  .$1,800. 

Do. 
Suhassistant  at  1,400,  to  assistant  at  $1,500. 

Winston,  Isaac 

Subassistant  at  $1,300,  to  suhassistant  at  $1,400. 
Suhassistant  at  $1,100,  to  subassistant  at  $1,300. 

Marr  E,  A                          

SuhaS'sistant  at  $1,400,  to  assistant  at  $1,500. 

May 

May 
Jiiiie 
July 
Julv 
July 
July 
July 
Julv 
Jul'v 

Welker.  P.  A 

Nflson  John 

Subassistant  at  $1,100  to  suhassistant  at  $1,400. 
Aid  at  .$900,  to  subassistant  at  $1  100. 

Boutelle.C.  0 

Mosnian,  A .  T 

Dennis,  William  H 

Kockwell,  Cleveland 

Donn   John  W 

Assistant  at  $2,000,  died. 
Assistant  at  $2,800,  to  assistant  at  $3,001). 
Assistant  at  $2,400,  to  assistant  at  $2,800. 
Assistant  at  $2,400,  to  assistant  at  $2,600. 
Do. 

Eimheck,  Wni         

Assistant  at  $2,300,  to  assistant  at  $2,400. 

Goodfellow,  Edward 

AVhitin""    Henry  L 

Do. 
Do. 

JulV 
Julv 

Ogden,  Herbert  G 

Assistant  at  $2,200,  to  assistant  at  2,400. 

Titman,  Otto  H 

Do. 

July 
July 
July 
July 
July 
July 
July 
July 
July 

Smith,  Edwin                     .    . 

Assistant  at  $1,800,  to  assistant  at  $2,000. 

lardella,  C.T : 

Vinal,  W.  Irving 

Assistant  at  $1,500,  to  assistant  at  $1,600. 
Do. 

Do. 

Marr,R.  A 

Do. 

Van  Orden,  C.  H 

Do. 

Suhassistant  at  $1,300,  to  subassistant  at  $1,400. 

Moi'se  Fremont 

Do. 

Elemer,  J.  A 

Suhassistant  at  $1,100,  to  suhassistant  at  $1,400. 

July 

Suhassistant  at  $1,100,  to  suhassistant  at  $1,200. 

July 

Woodward,  K.  S 

Appointed  assistant  at  $3,000. 

Resigned. 

Assistant  at  $1,500  (placed  on  furlough,  without  pay,  from 
Oct.  1, 1886).  Connection  with  the  Sur\ey  ceases  from  and 
after  date  of  approval  of  sundry  civil  appropriation  act  for 
year  1891,  no  provision  having  "been  made  for  hia  compen- 
sation as  assistant. 

Assistant  at  $1,500  (placed  on  furlough,  without  pay,  from 
Oct.  1,  1886).  Dropped  from  the  list  of  field  officers  of  the 
Survey,  no  appropriation  having  been  made  for  his  salary 
as  assistant. 

Suhassistant  at  $1,400.  to  assistant  at  $1,600. 

Appointed  suhassistant  at  $1,200. 

Appointed  aid  at  $900. 

Resigned. 

Aug. 
AusT. 

Lon<rfellow  A.  W 

Aug. 
Aug. 

Dean,  George  W 

McGrath,J.E 

Fairfield,  W.  B 

Sepl. 
Dec. 

Young,  F.  A 

Marr,  R.  A 

CHANGES    THAT  TOOK    PLACE   IN  THE    OFFICE   FOKCE   OF    THE   COAST  AND   GEODETIC 
SURVEY  DURING   THE   CALENDAR  YEAR  1890. 


Phrsons,  Jolm  TV. — Disbursing  agent  for  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  in  sundry  civil 

bill,  approved  March  30, 1890,  at  a  salary  of  $2,200  per  annum,  dropping  the  office 

of  accountant  at  a  salary  of  $1,800  per  annum. 
Parsons,  F.  H. — Chief  of  division  of  library  and  archives,  August  30,  1890.     Was 

transferred  to  this  position  from  assistant  at  $1,600  per  annum.     Salary  as  chief 

of  library  and  archives,  $1,800. 
Hensel,  Martin. — Clerk  to  the  superintendent.     Position  made  by  act  of  August  30, 

1890  (new).     Oath  September  27,  1890,  at  a  salary  of  $1,200  per  annum. 
Simons,  A.  B. — Clerk  to  assistant  in  charge  of  office.     Salary,  $1,000  per  annum. 

Oath  October  3,  1890.     Salary  first  appropriated  for  August  30,  1890.     He  was 

promoted  from  watchman,  weights  and  measures  division,  at  a  salary  of  $720  per 

annum. 
Smith,  J.  L. — Clerk  at  $1,200  per  annum.     Was  discharged  March  21,  1890. 
Duesberry,  J.  M. — Clerk  at  $1,000  per  annum.     Was  discharged  August  28,  1890. 


144       TRANSFEK  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

ChUion,  W.  B. — Clerk  at  $1,500  per  annum.  Made  clerk  at  $1,650  per  annum.  Act 
approved  August  30,  1890. 

Martin,  A. — Librarian  at  $1,800  per  annum,  was  reduced  to  clerk  at  $1,400  per  annum 
August  30,  1890. 

Green,  F.  li. — Clerk  at  $1,175,  was  increased  to  clerk  at  $1,200  per  annum  on  August 
30,  1890. 

Mnupin,  W.  C. — Clerk  at  $1,350  made  clerk  at  $1,400  per  annum  by  act  of  August  30, 
1890. 

Wills,  Euijene  B. — Accountant  at  a  salary  of  $1,800  per  annum.  Reduced  to  clerk 
at  $1,200  per  annum.     Act  of  August  30,  1890. 

Cook,  Frank  A. — Clerk  at  $1,200  per  annum.  Oath  November  15,  1890.  Appointed 
from  civil  service  in  place  of  R.  C.  Glasock,  discharged. 

Edmunds,  F. — Clerk  at  $900  per  annum,  was  increased  to  clerk  at  $1,000  per  annum 
by  act  August  30,  1890. 

Glascock,  li.  C. — Accountant  at  $1,400  per  annum,  was  reduced  to  clerk  at  $1,200 
per  annum  by  act  August  30,  1890.  He  was  discharged  November  13,  1890, 
and  his  place  supplied  on  call  from  civil  service  by  Frank  A.  Cook,  on  Novem- 
ber 15,  1890. 

Hein,  Miss  S. — Typewriter  and  copyist,  was  promoted  from  $600  to  $720  per  annum 
after  departmental  examination.     Oath  May  6,  1890. 

TurnlmU,  Miss  C. — Copyist,  resigned  May  23,  1890;  salary,  $720  per  annum. 

Barker,  J.  H. — Was,  under  the  reorganization  necessitated  by  the  act  approved  August 
30,  1890,  designated  as  a  chart- corrector  to  correspond  to  his  occupation,  and 
his  pay  fixed  at  the  rate  of  $1,200  per  annum  instead  of  $1,330  per  annum,  here- 
tofore paid  him  as  draftsman. 

Wyvill,  E.  H. — Designation  changed  from  draftsman,  at  $1,200  per  annum,  to  chart- 
corrector  at  $1,200  per  annum;  act  August  30,  1890. 

Whitaker,  J.  W. — Computer  at  $1,250  per  annum,  was  transferred  to  chart  division 
as  chart-corrector,  with  salary  at  the  rate  of  $1,200  per  annum,  by  act  of  August 
30,  1890.  Mr.  Hayford  filled  the  vacancy  of  computer,  at  $1,250  per  annum, 
made  vacant  by  the  transfer  of  Mr.  Whitaker. 

NesMt,  Mrs.  M.  E. — Writer  at  $800,  was  reduced  from  $840  per  annum,  by  act  of 
August  30,  1890.  She  was  transferred  to  the  office  of  Commissioner  of  Internal 
Revenue,  Treasury  Department,  and  promoted  to  $900  per  annum  .July  14,  1891. 

Carlisle,  Miss  A.  /<'.— Writer  at  $720  per  annum.  Oath,  October  30,  1890.  'Miss  Car- 
lisle is  one  of  the  writers  who  was  on  the  extra  labor  roll  when  the  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey  Office  was  placed  under  the  civil  service;  she  therefore  came 
under  civil  service  with  the  Bureau,  and  was  transferred  to  this  regular  position 
as  above  and  without  change  of  salary. 

Baileii,  Miss  F.  B. — Stenographer  and  typewriter  at  a  salary  of  $900  x^er  annum. 
Resigned  November  1,  1890.  The  vacancy  was  filled  by  the  promotion  of  Miss 
L.  A.  Mapes. 

Mapes,  Miss  L.  A. — Writer  at  $900  per  annum;  promoted  from  $720.  Oath,  Novem- 
ber 4,  1890. 

Harrison,  Mrs.  V. — Copyist  at  $720  per  annum ;  was  promoted  to  $900  per  annum. 
Oath,  December  12,  1890.     Took  departmental  examination  before  promotion. 

Benton,  W.  H. — Draftsman,  at  a  salary  of  $1,200  per  annum.  Resigned  after  the 
26th  March,  1890.  David  M.  Hildrith  was  promoted  from  a  salary  of  $1,100  per 
annum  to  the  vacancy  caused  by  Benton's  resignation. 

Peck,  Miss  1.  M. — Writer,  from  civil  service;  was  promoted  from  $600  to  $720  per 
annum.     Oath,  December  12,  1890. 

Jackson,  M.  P. — Was  promoted  November  2,  1889,  from  $940  per  annum  to  $1,100  per 
annum,  in  the  place  of  Hildrith,  promoted.     .Jackson  resigned  in  June,  1890. 

Lindenkohl,  A. — Draftsman.  Salary  fixed  at  $2,400  per  annum  by  act  approved 
August  30,  1890,  being  an  increase  from  $2,350  per  annum. 

Lindenkohl,  E. — Draftsman.  Salary  fixed  at  $2,200  by  act  approved  August  30, 1890, 
from  salary  at  $2,100  per  annum. 

Hildrith,  D.  M. — Draftsman;  was  rated  at  $1,400  per  annum,  in  place  of  E.  Molkow, 
in  accordance  with  act  of  August  30,  1890.  He  first  stood  departmental  exami- 
nation; civil  service.  His  previous  pay  was  $1,200  per  annum;  in  place  of  W. 
H.  Benton,  resigned. 

Dietz,  C.  H. — From  civil  service.  Oath,  March  11, 1889.  In  the  reorganization  under 
act  of  August  30,  1890,  his  pay  was  fixed  at  $1,200  per  annum. 

Pohlers,  G.  F. — Was  certified  from  civil  service  to  Indian  Office  at  $1,200  per  annum, 
but  accepted  transfer  here  at  $900  per  annum,  and  took  oath  of  office  March  27, 
1890.  He  was  rated  at  $1,200  on  reorganizing,  in  accordance  with  act  of  August 
30,  1890. 

Errichsen,  P. — Draftsman.  Salary  fixed  at  $1,000  by  act  approved  August  30, 1890, 
from  salary  of  $1,400  per  annum. 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      145 

Mahon,  C. — Draftsman.  Under  act  approved  August  30, 1890,  was  rated  at  $1,000  per 
annum,  instead  of  $1,260  per  annum  as  before. 

Molkow,  E. — Dropped  from  the  roll  at  $1,400  per  annum  on  August  28, 1890.  He  was 
reinstated  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  September  1,  1890,  granted  thirty 
days  leave,  of  absence  with  pay  at  the  rate  of  $900  per  annum,  and  was  again 
dropi)ed  September  30,  1890. 

Pond,  E.  J. — Appointed  on  certification  by  civil  service  and  took  the  oath  October 
15,  1890,  at  $900  per  annum. 

Mitchell,  Everett  S. — Draftsman  at  $900  per  annum ;  appointed  on  certification  by  the 
civil  service;  took  oath  November  24,  1890. 

Courtenaij,  E.  H. — Computer.  His  pay  was  increased  from  $1,850  to  $2,000,  per  annum 
on  the  reorganization  of  the  office  force  under  act  of  August  30,  1890. 

Doolittle,  M.  H. — Computer.  His  pay  was  increased  from  $1,850  to  $2,000  per  annum 
on  the  reorganization  of  the  office  force  under  act  of  August  30,  1890. 

Shidy,  L.  P. — Computer,  was  promoted  from  a  salary  of  $1,500  per  annum  to  one  of 
$1,600  per  annum  by  act  of  August  30,  1890. 

Farquhar,  H. — Computer.     Pay  reduced  from  $1,420  to  $1,400  per  annum,  in  accord- 
.•   ance  with  act  of  August  30,  1890. 

Bauer,  L.  A. — Computer.  Pay  increased  from  $1,300  to  $1,400  per  annum,  in  accord- 
ance with  act  of  August  30,  1890. 

Kummel,  C.  H. — Computer.  Pay  decreased  from  $1,260  to  $1,200  per  annum,  in  accord- 
ance with  act  of  August  30,  1890. 

Little,  F.  M. — Computer.  Pay  increased  from  $1,100  to  $1,200  per  annum,  in  accord- 
ance with  act  of  August  .30,  1890. 

Knight,  U.  M. — Engraver  at  $2,060  per  annum,  was,  under  act  of  August  30,  1890^ 
reduced  to  $2,000  per  annum. 

Thompson,  J.  G. — Engraver  at  $1,960  per  annum,  was  raised,  under  act  of  Augu8t'30,. 
1890,  to  $2,000. 

Sipe,  E.  H. — Engraver.  Pay  raised  from  $1,565  to  $1,600  per  annum  by  act  of  August 
30,  1890. 

Davis,  W.  H. — Engraver.  Pay  raised  from  $1,500  to  $1,600  per  annum  by  act  of 
August  30,  1890. 

Thompson,  H.  L. — Engraver.  Was  promoted  from  $900  to  $1,000  per  annum  under 
act  of  August  30,  1890. 

Wurdeman,  F.  G. — Engraver,  by  contract,  at  $35  per  month.  Began  work  Septem- 
ber 22,  1890. 

Smith,  Edward  H. — Engraver  at  $120  per  annum.     Resigned  after  November  15, 1890» 

Moore,  F. — Plate-printer.  Pay  decreased  from  $1,700  to  $1,600  per  annum  under  act 
of  August  30,  1890. 

Hoover,  D.  X. — Plate-printer.  Pay  decreased  from  $1,330  to  $1,000  per  annum, 
under  act  of  August  30, 1890.     He  resigned  September  27,  1890.- 

Harlow,  C.  J. — Plate-printer  at  $1,000  per  annum.  In  place  of  Hoover  from  Octo- 
ber 2,1890. 

Beck,  J. — Plate-printer.  Pay  decreased  from  $1,330  to  $1,000  per  annum,  by  act  of 
August  30,  1890.     Resigned  October  7,  1890. 

Sullivan,  T.  A. — Plate-printer  at  $1,000  per  annum  from  October  20,  1890.  He  takes 
the  place  made  vacant  by  the  resignation  of  James  Beck. 

Craufurd,  C.  B. — Plate-printer.  Pay  decreased  from  $1,250  to  $1,000  per  annum 
under  act  of  August  30,  1890.     Resigned  October  30,  1890. 

Bright,  R.  S. — Plate-printer  at  $1,000  per  annum,  in  the  place  made  vacant  by  the 
resignation  of  Craufurd.     Mr.  Bright  took  oath  of  office  December  6,  1890. 

Clark,  Dr.  J.  J. — Adjuster  of  weights  and  measures.  (See  legislative,  executive, 
and  judicial  bill.)  Resigned  January  1,1890.  Salary,  $1,500  per  annum.  He 
was  succeeded  by  L.  A.  Fischer,  who  had  been  in  the  instrument  division  as 
mechanician,  at  a  salary  of  $1,330  per  annum. 

Fischer,  L.  A. — Mechanician.  Salary,  $1,330  per  annum.  Discharged  February  18, 
1890,  and  appointed  adjuster  of  weights  and  measures,  at  $1,500  per  annum,  in 
place  Dr.  J.  J.  Clark. 

Eschlenian,  E. — Mechanician.     Pay,  $1,565  per  annum.    Discharged  April  13, 1890. 

Vierhuchen,  P. — Meclianican,  at  a  salary  of  $1,250  per  annum.     Resigned  May  1,  1890. 

Gerhards,  T. — Mechanician,  weights  and  measures.  His  salary  was  at  the  rate  of 
$1,250  per  annum,  in  Bureau  of  Weights  and  Measures.  (See  Legislative,  execu- 
tive, and  judicial  bill.)  His  resignation  took  effect  July  1,  1890.  He  was  suc- 
ceeded by  W.  H.  Bullock,  who  was  selecte^l  from  a  number  of  applicants  who 
responded  to  the  advertisements  of  the  Survey.  Oath  administered  Auarust  1, 
1890. 

Regennas,  E.  C. — Instrument-maker.  Oath  January  23,  1890.  He  succeeded  Vier- 
huchen, and  the  pay  was  fixed  at  $1,000  per  annum  by  act  of  August  30,  1890. 
He  was  selected  from  applicants  who  responded  to  advertisements. 

4561 10 


146      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

Kearney,  S.  A. — Instrument-maker.     His  salary  was  reduced  from  $1,175  to  $1,000 

per  annum  by  act  of  August  30,  1890. 
Whitman,  fV.  it'. —Instrument-maker.     Pay  increased  from  $900  to  $1,00}  per  annum, 

by  act  of  August  30,  1890.     Selected  from  skilled  men  in  Washington  navy-yard. 
Lauxman,  M.  J. — Instrument-maker.     Pay  raised  from  $545  to  $700  per  annum,  under 

act  of  August  30,  1890. 
French,  H.  0. — Carpenter.     Pay  increased  under  act  of  August  30,  1890,  from  $1,565 

to  $1,600  per  annum. 
Clarvoe,  G.  W. — Carpenter.     Pay  increased  under  act  of  August  30,  1890,  from  $800 

per  annum  to  $900  per  annum.- 
Darnall,  C.  N. — Carpenter.     Pay  increased  from  $500  to  $700  per  annum  under  act  of 

August  30,  1890. 
Bassett,  B.  T. — Map-mounter.     Pay  was  decreased  from  $1,020  i>er  annum  to  $1,000 

per  annum,  act  of  August  30,  1890. 
Keyser,  L.  P. — Assistant  electrotyper.     Pay  increased  from  $500  to  $900  per  annum, 

under  act  of  August  30,  1890. 
Butler,  W.  H. — Head  messenger.     Increased  from  $875  to  $880  i>er  annum,  by  act  of 

August  30,  1890. 
Denis,  Vicente. — Messenger.     Reduced  from  $840  to  $820  per  annum,  act  of  August  30, 

1890. 
McLane,  \V.  R. — Driver  of  office  wagon.     Increased  from  $730  to  $820,   by  act  of 

August  30,  1890. 
Dyer,  Horace. — $570  to  $630  as  fireman,  by  act  of  August  30,  1890. 
Flynn,  Mrs.  F.  E. — Charwoman.     Raised  from  $315  per  annum  to  $365  per  annum,  by 

act  of  August  30,  1890. 
Grinage,  J.  F. — Messenger.     Pay  at  $550  per  annum.     Oath  November  1,  1890. 
Boiien,  S.  ./.—Watchman  Bureau  of  W^eights  and  Measures  at  $720.     Oath  December 

10,  1890.     He  came  in  Simons's  place. 

Now,  Mr.  Chairman  and  gentlemen,  I  feel  you  have  accorded  me  a 
very  great  courtesy  and  consideration  in  listening  to  me  so  long  and  I 
am  going  to  content  myself  with  reading  from  the  ox)inions  of  others 
whose  judgment  I  think  you  will  admit  should  be  considered  in  any 
adjustment  of  this  question.  And  the  tirst  paper  to  which  I  refer  is  a 
letter  from  Eear- Admiral  Jenkins,  of  the  U.  S.  Navy.  I  will  say  that 
this  letter  was  originally  prepared  in  1857;  that  in  1880,  however,  when 
this  question  was  again  before  Congress  on  a  division  of  this  Bureau 
and  disposition  which  is  now  proposed  by  this  bill.  Admiral  Jenkins, 
having  written  this  letter  in  1857,  was  asked  whether  he  was  still  of 
the  same  opinion,  and  I  will  read  you  just  a  few  words  of  his  reply  on 
that  particular  point.     He  says : 

Washington  City,  June  5,  1884. 
The  following  remarks  (made  by  me  about  1857)  having  been  shown  to  me,  and 
the  question  asked  if  I  had  changed  my  views,  I  unhesitatingly  say  I  have  not 
changed  one  opinion  in  regard  to  the  present  organization  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey,  and  of  the  i)roper  department  under  which  it  should  be.  If  I  could  do  so, 
I  would  put  all  the  scientific  bureaus  of  the  Government  under  a  separate  and  dis- 
tinct Cabinet  officer,  to  be  created.  Neither  the  Treasury,  Navy,  nor  Interior 
Departments,  as  at  present  organized,  can  properly  and  intelligently  supervise  these 
great  operations;  but  in  the  absence  of  such  a  new  department  as  I  have  indicated, 
in  my  opinion  any  other  change  would  result  disadvantageouslj'^,  if  not  disastrously, 
to  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  and  the  operations  now  authorized  by  law. 

Thornton  A.  .Jenkins, 
lietired  Hear- Admiral,  U.  S.  Navy. 

The  letter  itself  is  quite  lengthy,  and  it  is  a  very  able  presentation, 
in  my  judgment,  of  the  argument  against  such  a  change  as  proposed 
here,  and  has  great  weight,  and  should  have,  coming  from  an  old  Navy 
officer  of  long  experience,  and  one  who  had  been  connected  with  the 
Survey.    I  may  read  two  or  three  paragraphs  only.    He  says  ; 

It  is  not  a  work  appropriate  to  the  Navy.  The  Navy  performs  all  the  duty  prop- 
erly belonging  to  it — that  of  hydrography — and  it  receives  full  credit  individually 
and  collectively  for  all  it  does.  It  is,  therefore,  unjust  to  the  officers  of  the  Army 
and  to  the  civilians  to  claim  it  exclusively;  and  no  officer  of  the  Navy  who  is  actu- 
ated by  purely  disinterested  motives,  and  is  at  the  same  time  competent  to  judg 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      147 

fairly  on  the  subject,  caii  feel  or  affect  to  feel  that  it  is  any  reflection  upon  the  serv- 
ice to  admit  that  it  is  not  the  duty  of  the  Navy.  There  is  no  tear  of  misapprehen- 
sion in  the  public  mind  of  incapacity. 

The  Coast  Survey  has  proved  a  most  advantageous  and  admirable  school^o  a  few 
officers  of  the  Navy,  who  availed  themselves  (against  great  odds)  of  the  opportuni- 
ties of  that  service. 

Perliaps  I  may  read  this : 

The  Navy  Department  has  the  same  control  over  the  hydrographic  parties  that  it 
has  over  the  rest  of  the  naval  forces.  The  manner  in  which  applications  are  made 
for  provisions  and  men  is  the  same  as  it  would  be  if  the  Survey  were  under  the  Navy 
Department. 

The  following  is  applied  to  that  point  which  was  made  the  other  day 
that  the  Secretary  had  less  administrative  control  over  his  officers  in 
detailing  them  to  the  Bureau  than  he  should  have.  Admiral  Jenkins 
also  speaks  of  the  difficulties  of  selecting  these  hydro grai)hers  in  accord- 
ance with  the  methods  which  would  naturally  prevail  in  a  bureau  of 
the  Kavy  Department,  that  is,  by  means  of  seniority  alone,  and  thus 
speaks  against  it: 

To  select  chiefs  of  hydrographic  parties  from  the  Navy  Register  without  reference 
to  fitness  and  making  seniority  the  only  guide  would  render  it  necessary  for  the 
Department  to  detail  some  other  lieutenant  or  passed  midshipman  of  known  ability 
to  perform  the  duties,  while  the  commander  would,  from  incapacity,  do  nothing, 
and,  receiving  all  the  credit  for  the  work  of  his  junior,  inflict  an  irreparable  wrong 
upon  him  and  upon  the  service. 

I  will  say  as  to  the  selection  of  naval  officers  for  service  in  the  Coast 
and  Geodetic  Survey,  while  of  course  no  officer  can  serve  in  the  Survey 
without  being  detailed  by  the  Secretary  and  nothing  of  that  kind  would 
be  possible,  as  Admiral  Jenkins  says  here,  yet  it  is  customary  to  select 
those  who  have  a  taste  for  this  work — who  have  some  inclination  toward 
it.  Almost  invariably  we  succeed  in  finding  some  men  of  that  class. 
The  hydrograi^hic  inspector,  to  whom  I  have  referred  several  times, 
who  is  the  principal  officer  detailed  to  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey, 
and  has  his  office  with  us  in  Washington  here,  is  constantly  looking 
out  for  men  who  like  and  who  are  fond  of  this  kind  of  work,  and 
requests  their  detail.  Of  course  if  their  services  are  required  elsewhere 
we  do  not  get  them.  That  gives  us  the  means  of  selection  which 
Admiral  Jenkins  distinctly  says  would  not  exist  if  the  ordinary 
method  of  detail  was  used. 

Now,  I  have  a  few  remarks  which  were  made  on  this  subject  also  in 
1 884,  which  I  will  read  first,  and  I  may  say  I  read  these,  although  they 
were  given  ten  years  ago,  for  this  reason — for  two  reasons  perhaps.  In 
the  first  place,  many  of  those  gentlemen  have  given  recent  assurances 
that  their  opinions  were  even  stronger  upon  this  subject  than  they 
were  at  that  time.  Perhaps  a  greater  reason  than  any  other  is  that 
these  letters  which  I  will  read,  being  dated  1884,  were  called  forth  by  a 
letter,  or  a  series  of  letters,  sent  to  those  gentlemen  by  a  member  of 
Congress,  and  not  by  anyone  in  the  Coast  Survey  or  anyone  con- 
nected in  anyway  with  the  Coast  Survey.  The  inquiries  were  made 
by  a  member  of  the  joint  commission  which  had  to  consider  this  ques- 
tion of  these  several  gentlemen,  and  in  response  they  wrote  these  let- 
ters, which  I  Avill  read  and  which  have  never  been  published.  It  was 
found  that  they  were  not  really  needed  as  the  commission  had  made 
up  their  minds — at  all  events,  they  were  never  printed  or  published. 
These  are  the  views  of  gentlemen  who  had  opportunity  for  knowing 
the  character  of  the  work  of  the  Survey.  I  will  read  a  selection  from 
a  letter  of  Andrew  D.  White,  long  time  president  of  Cornell  Univer- 
sity, well  known  to  everybody,  in  which  he  says : 


148      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

President's  Room,  Cornell  University, 

Ithaca,  N.  T..  June  30,  1S84. 

*  ♦  *  I  can  only  say  that  considering  the  high  position  which  the  Coast  Survey 
holds  in  the  estimation  of  thinking  men  throughout  the  country,  especially  at  every 
college  and  higher  institution  of  education  in  every  State  of  the  Union,  very  clear 
and  cogent  reasons  ought  to  be  presented  if  a  change  is  made. 

I  remain, 

And.  D.  White. 

The  next  is  from  President  James  B.  Angell,  president  of  tlie  Uni- 
versity of  Michigan,  in  which  he  says : 

University  of  Michigan, 

Ann  Arbor,  June  17,  1884. 

*  *  *  \  say  that  it  would  be  a  serious  disaster  to  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Sur- 
vey to  place  it  under  the  direction  of  the  Navy  Department. 

The  history  of  the  organization  under  which  so  brilliant  results  have  been  accom- 
plished should  deter  one  from  making  so  radical  a  change  as  is  proposed  in  the  news- 
paper paragraph  you  have  sent  to  me. 
Yours,  very  respectfully, 

James  B.  Angell, 

President. 

I  believe  a  newspaper  paragraph  was  the  means  of  getting  the 
opinions  of  these  gentlemen.  Another  extract  is  from  the  letter  of  a  dis- 
tinguished member  of  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences,  Mr.  Fairman 
Rogers,  secretary  of  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences;  he  says: 

Newport,  R.  I.,  June  20, 1884. 
Dear  Sir: 

*  «  *  #  *  *  * 

I  consider  that  the  transfer  of  the  hydrographic  work  to  the  Navy  would  seriously 
damage  the  scientific  interests  of  the  country  and  would  impair  the  value  of  the 
work  itself. 

You  know  how  the  military  rules  and  customs  of  the  Navy  tend  to  cramp  every- 
thing that  is  done  by  it,  and  the  scientific  work  intrusted  to  it  would  no  doubt  be 
kept  strictly  within  the  usual  routine  and  the  outside  scientific  aid  and  sympathy 
of  the  country  would  be  immediately  lost  to  it.     *     *     * 

The  charts  of  the  Coast  Survey  arc  now  so  far  superior  to  those  of  English  har- 
bors made  by  the  English  navy  that  hardly  any  comparison  is  possible  between 
them.  I  am  certain  that  geodetic  work  would  suflfer  almost  unto  death  by  l^eing 
placed  under  the  Geological  Survey.     *     *     * 

The  U.  S.  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  as  at  present  organized  has  done  its  practical 
work  in  the  best  way,  nothing  better  has  been  done  in  the  world,  and  its  collateral 
scientific  influence  upon  the  country  has  been  incalculable. 

Fairman  Rogers, 
V  Formerly  Secretary  National  Academy  of  Sciences. 

I  may  say  this  gentleman  speaks  with  good  authority,  because  he  is  a 
yachtsman  of  high  reputation  and  has  traveled  around  the  coast  of  the 
United  States  and  abroad  extensively,  and  consequently  he  has  used 
the  charts  of  the  United  States,  as  well  as  those  of  foreign  countries,  and 
I  would  like  to  invite  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  he  makes  a  com- 
parison of  our  work  with  that  of  the  English. 

Prof.  H.  A.  Newton,  of  Yale  College,  the  eminent  astronomer,  says: 

Yale  College,  June  17,  1884. 

*  *  *  I  should  regret  the  breaking  up  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  organ- 
ization, and  the  distril)ution  of  its  functions  to  the  Interior  and  Navy  Departments 
as  disastrous  in  the  extreme. 

H.  A.  Newton. 

Mr.  Charles  W.  Ellio  tt,  president  of  Harvard  University,  says : 

Harvard  University,  June  17, 1884. 
In  reply  to  your  inquiry  of  June  14,  I  beg  to  say  that  every  presumption  seems  to 
me  to  be  against  breaking  up  an  organization  which  has  done  such  efiicient  and  hon- 
orable work  as  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey. 

Charles  W.  Elliott, 

President. 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      149 

Dr.  Gillmau,  president  of  Jolins  Hopkins  University,  says : 

President's  Office,  Johns  Hopkins  University, 

Baltimore,  June  16,  1884. 
I  should  deplore  any  hasty  or  unconsidered  legislation  which  would  tend  to  impair 
the  efficiency  of  one  of  the  most  honorable  and  important  branches  of  the  public 
service — the  U.  S.  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey. 

D.  C.  GiLMAN. 

Prof.  W.  p.  Trowbridge,  for  a  long  time  professor  of  engineering  in 
the  School  of  Mines,  Columbia  College,  says : 

School  of  Mines,  Columbia  College, 

New  York,  June  17,  1884. 
I  can  not  imagine  a  greater  national  disgrace  in  connection  with  our  public  sur- 
veys and  iraprovemenis  at  this  time  than  the  dismemberment  of  the  Coast  Survey. 

W.  P.  Trowbridge, 
'     Professor  of  Engineering. 

Prof.  C.  A.  Young,  professor  of  astronomy  at  Princeton  College 
writes  as  follows : 

Princeton,  N.  J .,  June  13, 1884. 

*  *  *  I  am  sure  that  I  express  the  judgment  of  nine-tenths  of  the  scientific 
men  of  the  country  in  saying  that  the  abolition  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey 
and  the  transfer  of  its  duties  to  other  organizations  would  be  considered  nothing 
less  than  a  calamity. 

C.  A.  Young. 

Prof.  George  H.  Cook,  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  New  Jersey,  so 
well  known  to  all  of  you,  says: 

Geologi  cal  Survey  of  New  Jersey, 
New  Brunswick,  June  16,  1884. 

*  *  *  The  Coast  Survey  is  thoroughly  organized  *  *  *  and  is  doing  work 
that  is  of  the  nicest  and  at  the  same  time  most  useful  character,  in  the  most  credita- 
ble manner  and  with  a  rigid  economy  of  money. 

The  Coast  Survey  supplies  us  with  information  on  accurate  points  of  latitude  and 
longitude,  on  magnetism  and  the  variations  of  the  compass  in  parts  of  our  country, 
on  tides,  and  on  those  abstruse  but  necessary  questions  which  have  to  do  with  the 
figure  of  the  earth. 

George  H.  Cook. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  He  is  recently  deceased? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  He  is  recently  deceased.  I  have  here  several 
more  expressions  of  opinion  of  the  same  character.  Now,  I  come  to 
those  of  more  recent  date.  Perhaps  I  may  read,  however,  bearing  upon 
the  matter  of  our  work,  a  letter  written  about  the  same  time  and  written 
by  Mr.  W.  C.  Kerr,  of  North  Carolina,  who  also  made  a  geological  map 
of  the  State.    He  said : 

June  23,  1884. 

For  example,  in  my  own  experience,  after  making  a  triangulation  of  the  State  of 
North  Carolina,  in  connection  with  the  Geological  Survey  and  for  the  purpose  of  con- 
structing an  accurate  geological  map  of  the  State,  I  was  only  able  to  utilize  this 
work  of  half  a  dozen  years,  as  well  as  the  previous  labors  of  Prof.  Guyot,  after  the 
Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  gave  us  a  chain  of  triangulation  through  the  eastern 
piedmont  of  the  Appalachians. 

Now  we  come  to  some  comments  which  have  been  made  within  the 
last  few  months.  The  first  one  I  happen  to  have  is  a  selection  from  the 
Engineering  News,  a  leading  engineering  journal,  as  you  all  know,  of 
date  of  March  29,  1894.     It  says: 

ABOLISHING  THE   COAST  AND   GEODETIC   SURVEY. 

*  *  *  No  other  government  has  carried  forward  so  thorough  and  accurate  a 
system  of  surveys  over  so  large  a  portion  of  the  world's  surface  as  has  the  United 
States. 


150      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

It  further  says : 

Of  late  years  tlie  Bureau  has  been  giving  very  valuable  aid  to  State  surveys  along 
the  Atlantic  coast,  utilizing  for  this  purpose  the  primary  triangulatiou  of  the  Coast 
Survey;  and  as  a  result  of  this  cooperation  of  the  national  and  State  governments 
we  have  the  extremely  complete  and  satisfactory  maps  of  New  Jersey ;  and  similar 
maps  of  New  York,  Connecticut,  and  Massachusetts  are  either  already  being  pub- 
lished or  are  well  advanced.  *  *  *  It  is  only  when  this  system  is  extended  to  all 
the  States  of  the  Union  that  the  United  States  Government  will  possess  an  accurate 
and  complete  map  of  its  Avide  domain,  and  such  maps  are  now  much  needed  by  every 
department  of  the  Government  for  the  proper  transaction  of  department  business. 

Now,  some  college  Institutions  have  expressed  themselves  about  this 
matter,  and  this  is  from  the  chancellor  of  the  Washington  University, 
St.  Louis,  Mt\,  in  which  he  says : 

Washington  University, 
St.  Louis,  Mo.,  March  30,  1894. 
I  am  heartily  opposed  to  the  action,  as  a  man  interested  in  scientific  work,  it  is 
my  duty  to  make  as  vigorous  a  protest  against  this  action  as  possible.  I  do  not  see 
that  the  new  plan  promises  to  do  the  work  of  the  Survey  at  a  smaller  expense  or 
with  greater  regard  to  the  public  need,  and  as  for  the  standard  of  work,  I  believe  it 
would  be  seriously  threatened  by  such  transfer  as  proposed.  *  *  *  I  feel  impelled 
to  take  much  more  vigorous  action  than  would  seem  becoming  were  the  subject  one 
which  could  be  more  readily  understood  by  the  peoi)le  at  large. 

W.  S.  Chaplin. 

Also,  an  expression  from  the  professors,  and  especially  the  professor 
of  geology,  who  is  one  of  the  leading  geologists  of  the  country,  in  the 
Ohio  State  University.    They  say: 

Columbus,  Ohio,  March  30,  1894. 

That  the  dismemberment  of  the  U  S.  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  would  inevitably 
result  in  the  lowering  of  the  character  of  the  work  done  and  would  thus  prove  detri- 
mental to  the  public  interest  *  *  ".  In  short,  we  find  insuperable  objections  to 
the  objects  of  the  Enloe  bill  and  we  fail  to  see  a  single  advantage  which  it  is  justly 
entitled  to  claim. 

Signed  by  the  professors  in  charge  of  department  of  science  of  the  Ohio  State  Uni- 
versity. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Will  you  allow  me  to  ask  you  a  question  right  on  that 
point  ? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.    Yes,  sir. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Has  there  been  any  communication  sent  from  the  Coast 
and  Geological  Survey  to  these  various  colleges  to  get  this  expression 
of  opinion  ? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  am  glad  to  answer  this  question. 

Mr.  Chairman.  When  this  bill  was  introduced,  and  in  fact  when  the 
action  was  taken  before  the  introduction  of  the  bill,  that  is,  the  attempt 
made  to  accomplish  this  by  amendments  to  the  sundry  civil  bill,  which 
you  will  all  remember,  the  attention  of  a  number  of  people  in  the  coun- 
try was  at  once  called  to  this  action,  and  the  office  of  the  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey  began  to  receive  personal  letters  from  people  all  over 
the  country.  The  first  communication  I  had  in  fact  was  from  the 
farthest  point,  that  is  California,  and  I  had  two  or  three  letters  just  as 
soon  as  the  mail  could  carry  them ;  and  before  we  had  fully  appreciated 
ourselves  this  bill  had  been  proposed  we  had  a  communication  from 
the  University  of  California  which  I  will  read  further  along. 

Mr.  Enloe.  What  I  want  to  know  is  if  any  communication  had  been 
sent  out  by  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  will  come  to  that  and  explain  that  in  a 
moment.  Then  we  were  called  upon  in  the  next  forty-eight  hours  by 
a  number  of  newspaper  reporters  who  wished  to  know  what  the  feeling 
of  the  Survey  was  about  the  matter,  and  naturally  we  were  reticent  in 
expressing  our  views,  except  to  say  naturally  enough  we  believed  it 


TRANSFER    OF    COAST   AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY.  151 

was  an  objectionable  movement.  Letters  written  in  the  newspapers 
originated  in  that  way.  The  reporters  came  from  several  Xew  York 
papers  to  talk  with  me  abont  the  matter.  Then  the  next  step  was  the 
coming  to  this  city  of  one  or  two  college  professors — you  will  remember 
this — one  gentleman  appeared  here  from  Johns  Hopkins  University,  a 
distinguished  geologist,  opposing  quite  vigorously  the  passage  of  this 
bill.  1  knew  nothing  of  the  attitude  of  Johns  Hopkins  University 
until  he  came  to  see  me  afterwards. 

Mr.  Talbott.  He  wrote  me  a  communication  about  that  before  you 
knew  anything  about  it  at  all. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Yes,  sir;  also  the  Columbia  College  people 
were  interested — I  do  not  know  how  they  learned  of  it — and  two  or  three 
of  their  faculty  volunteered  to  come  here  and  express  their  views. 
Now,  those  gentlemen  came  here  to  see  me,  and  in  conversation  with 
them  I  stated  I  believe  there  Avas  no  harm  in  calling  the  attention  of 
my  friends  and  a  number  of  the  friends  of  the  Survey  in  the  country 
to  this  bill  whicli  had  been  proposed,  and  I  am  free  to  say,  Mr.  Chair- 
man, I  did  it.  I  wrote  to  perhaps  10  or  maybe  15  people,  but  not  so 
many,  probably,  as  that,  around  the  country  and  sent  them  copies  of 
the  bill  stating  that  I  would  be  glad  to  have  an  expression  of  their 
opinion. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  Asking  for  something  in  the  direction  of  an 
opinion? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Yes,  sir.  They  responded,  and  I  will  say 
also 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  Without  any  prejudice? 

Prof.  Mendbnhall.  Yes,  sir.  I  will  say  Cornell  University  also 
wrote  officially  a  long  letter,  I  think  it  was  written  to  this  committee 
without  my  knowledge,  and  I  think  I  can  justly  say  the  movement  was 
entirely  spontaneous. 

The  Chairman.  Let  me  ask  you  a  question  right  there.  Are  any  of 
the  faculties  of  any  of  these  colleges  employed  in  any  way  by  the  Coast 
and  Geodetic  Survey  ? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  We  have  3  men  at  the  present  time  who  are 
employed  during  a  portion  of  the  year  by  the  Coast  Survey. 

The  Chairman.  Who  are  they? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  That  is  in  accordance  with  a  system  which  I 
am  very  glad  to  explain.  Under  th»3  appropriation  which  we  have  to 
furnish  points  to  State  surveys  it  has  long  been  the  practice,  in  fact,  I 
think,  for  fifteen  or  twenty  years,  ever  since  that  appropriation  was 
made,  to  em[)loy  during  the  summer  months  a  college  professor  to  take 
the  field,  if  we  can  find  one  who  is  fitted  for  it.  Then  we  term  him 
acting  assistant  in  the  Coast  Survey.  We  have  at  i)resent  one  in  the 
State  of  Minnesota,  one  in  the  State  of  Tennessee,  as  perhaps  is  well 
known  to  Mr.  Enloe,  Prof.  Buchanan,  and  we  have  also  one  in  the  State 
of  New  Jersey. 

The  Chairman.  You  have  three  altogether? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  think  that  is  all;  and  those  men  have  for 
many  years  been  in  our  Survey  in  that  capacity. 

The  Chairman.  They  were  in  the  Survey  when  you  came  inf 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  They  have  been  there  for  many  years,  Mr. 
Chairman,  and  1  did  not  have  anything  to  do  with  the  selection  or 
appointment  of  any  of  them. 

Mr.  Enloe.  What  is  the  object  of  employing  a  college  professor! 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  The  object  is,  we  can  get  the  work  done,  I  think 
on  the  Avhole,  at  a  less  cost  than  by  putting  our  own  men  in  the  field. 


152      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

Our  own  corps  is  small  and  oftentimes  during  the  summer  we  have  not 
a  sufficient  number  of  men  to  do  this,  so  these  men  were  selected.  As 
I  say,  it  was  the  policy  which  was  adopted  twenty  years  ago  as  far  as  I 
know,  and  in  my  judgment  it  is  a  wise  policy.  These  men  are  civil  engi- 
neers. They  are  generally  professors  of  civil  engineering  in  these  col- 
leges and  they  naturally  like  to  do  this  kind  of  work.  We  pay  them 
$4  a  day  for  their  services  and  they  naturally  like  to  do  it,  because  it 
gives  them  opportunity  to  do  high-class  work,  and  they  in  turn  can 
teach  their  pupils  how  it  is  done,  and  altogether  the  work  is  excellent, 
proving  an  excellent  arrangement  for  those  States.  Take  your  own 
State 

Mr.  Money.  A  good  way  of  spending  a  vacation  and  getting  healthy, 
too. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  In  your  own  State,  Mr.  Enloe,  the  oflficer  there 
is  regarded  by  the  office  and  has  been,  as  I  learned  when  I  came  to  the 
office,  one  of  the  most  efficient  men  of  the  whole  corps.  The  other  2 
men  are  efficient  men  also,  and  they  all  need  no  i)raise  from  me  as  far 
as  the  efficiency  of  their  work  is  concerned. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Will  you  furnish  the  committee  with  a  list  of  the  per- 
sons connected  with  colleges  who  have  been  employed  by  the  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey  during  your  administration  ? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  think  I  have  already  furnished  it,  sir.  There 
have  been  no  other  men  employed.  In  fact,  when  I  came  in,  I  dropped 
off*  2  or  3  who  had  been  employed  before. 

Mr.  Enloe.  There  are  now  only  3. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  think  there  have  been  no  more  since  I  have 
been  here,  except  those  3.  I  dropped  oil  2  or  3  because  I  happened 
personally  to  know  that  they  were  not  the  most  competent  men  to  do 
the  work,  so  I  dropped  them  off  and  there  remained  only  those  3  men. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  How  long  had  that  full  corps  of  6  men  been 
working? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Of  6  ? 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  If  you  dropped  off  3,  there  must  have  been  6. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  do  not  know  now  how  many  I  dropped.  I 
remember  now  of  dropping  1  in  a  Western  State,  and  I  did  not  con- 
tinue the  work  in  that  State.  The  work  had  been  going  on  in  the  States 
of  Ohio  and  Indiana,  and  I  discontinued  the  work  in  both  of  those 
States,  because  on  investigation  I  thought  the  men  were  not  the  best 
men  who  could  be  selected,  and,  secondly,  I  did  not  like  exactly  the 
scheme  which  had  been  started  for  the  triaugulation  there,  so  it  was 
stopped.  Now,  this  system  has  been  in  operation — how  long,  Mr. 
Wainwright,  fifteen  years'? 

Mr.  Wainwright.  I  think  so;  as  far  back,  I  should  say,  as  1871. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  At  one  time  I  think  as  many  as  0  were  employed. 
I  doubt  whether  there  were  ever  more  men  than  that  emx)loyed  at  one 
time. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  Those  you  might  designate  as  outsiders? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Yes,  sir;  acting  assistants.  I  will  say  we  have 
only  2  men  at  the  present  time  having  that  title  besides  Prof.  Alexan- 
der Agassiz,  who  is  an  acting  assistant  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Sur- 
vey. He  was  appointed  a  year  orJ^wo  ago,  but  without  compensation 
whatever,  and  never  received  a  dollar  from  the  Survey;  but  when  he 
goes  to  Cuba,  for  instance,  to  pursue  his  geological  investigation,  he 
has  an  official  title,  so  they  receive  him  in  a  little  better  way,  and  with 
the  permission  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  two  years  ago  I  gave 
him  that  title.  He  costs  the  Coast  and  (reodetic  Survey  nothing  and 
turns  in  any  results  as  to  soundings  and  that  kind  of  thing. 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      153 

Mr.ENLOE.  Is  your  regular  force  then  insufficient  to  do  this  work? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  The  regular  force  could  have  done  this  work  in 
the  States  if  it  was  thought  to  be  desired. 

Mr.  Money.  But  they  are  doing  something  else. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  Yes,  sir; 'but  I  must  say  I  consider  it  desira- 
ble. We  have  a  few  men  in  the  States  who  are  employed  in  that  way, 
and  tliey  do  their  work  fairly  well.  We  send  men  frequently  to  inspect 
this  work.  We  do  not  allow  it  to  go  out  without  it  is  first-class.  I  can 
give  you  every  evidence  of  that. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Did  you  have  Mr.  Charles  S.  Pierce  here  at  one  time 
unemployed'? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  No,  sir;  if  the  committee  wants  to  hear  the 
story  of  Mr.  Charles  S.  Peirce  I  will  tell  it. 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  would  like  to  hear  it,  very  much. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  It  is  perhaps  interesting.  He  is  the  son  of 
Prof.  Benjamin  Pierce,  for  a  long  time  professor  of  mathematics  at 
Harvard  TJniversity,  and  for  about  six  or  eight  years  Superintendent  of 
the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  succeeding  Prof.  Bache  as  Superintend- 
ent. Charles  S.  Pierce  was  one  of  his  sons,  and  the  other  is  now  pro- 
fessor of  mathematics  at  Harvard.  Prof.  Benj.  Pierce  was  a  man  of 
great  ability,  and  was  one  of  the  leading  astronomers,  ranking  with 
Bowditch  and  others  of  high  standing,  and  his  son  was  a  man  of  great 
ability,  thought  by  many  to  possess  higher  mathematical  attainments 
than  ills  father.  Charles  S.  Pierce  came  to  the  Coast  Survey  perhaps 
during  his  father's  administration,  perhaps  before.  At  any  rate,  in 
1873  there  was  assigned  to  him  the  work  of  carrying  on  gravity  deter- 
minations in  the  United  States,  and  when  I  came  into  the  Survey  I 
found  him  in  the  Survey  employed  in  that  capacity;  that  is,  as  an 
assistant.  He  had  been  so  employed  for  many  years,  and  he  had  been 
so  employed  during  the  time  of  my  predecessor,  Mr.  Thorne. 

I  discovered  that  he  had  been  put  on  office  work  by  my  predecessor, 
that  is  to  say,  having  made  a  number  of  observations  extending  through 
several  years  he  had  not  reduced  those  observations,  had  not  gotten 
out  of  them  all  that  ought  to  have  been  gotten  out  of  them  and  all 
that  should  have  been  gotten  out  of  them,  and  Mr.  Thorn  had  sent 
him  to  his  home  in  Pennsylvania,  with  instructions  to  reduce  those 
observations,  and  I  think  that  Prof.  Peirce  was  there  at  least  two  or 
three  years  before  I  came  into  the  Survey,  engaged  solely  in  trying  to 
complete  that  work.  He  had  an  immense  mass  of  material  which  he 
tried  to  get  out  and  he  never  suc(ieeded  in  doing  it.  Nevertheless  he 
worked  on  that  at  that  time  to  try  to  do  it.  I  came  in  five  years  ago 
and  found  that  condition  of  things.  I  very  soon  began  to  ask  Mr. 
Peirce  for  the  results  of  his  work,  but  he  began  to  make  one  excuse 
after  another  for  not  having  finished  these  results  and  I  then  had  him 
by  and  by  send  on  the  material  which  he  had  and  I  made  a  careful 
examination  of  that,  and  I  was  not  quite  satisfied  to  let  the  matter 
depend  upon  my  own  personal  judgment,  so  I  submitted  it  to  two  or 
three  of  the  most  competent  experts,  Prof.  Newcomb,  of  the  Nautical 
Almanac,  and  Prof.  Newton,  of  Yale  College,  whose  name  I  mentioned 
just  now.  I  sent  a  number  of  papers  and  documents  to  those  gentle- 
men in  order  to  be  sure  that  they  might  agree  with  me  or  say  I  was 
wrong  in  my  judgment  with  regard  to  the  character  of  the  work. 

Now,  in  justice  to  Prof.  Peirce  I  will  say  much  of  his  work  was  of 
the  highest  character,  and  it  has  received  praise  from  the  European 
geodetists  and  others,  physicists,  etc.,  but  it  lacked  that  practical  qual- 
ity which  I  believed  to  be  essential.    That  is,  while  I  absolutely  believe 


154      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

in  the  duty  of  a  Governmeut  Bureau  like  this,  which  needs  so  much  and 
gets  so  much  from  science  and  scientific  men,  while  I  believe  it  to  be  the 
duty  of  such  a  Bureau  to  make  some  return  in  kind  wlien  it  can  do  so 
incidentally,  yet  at  the  same  time  I  believe,  and  I  have  tried  to  keep  to 
that  idea,  the  final  outcome  should  b^  practical  results.  I  discovered 
after  a  careful  examination  that  Prof.  Peirce  was  not  getting-  practical 
results.  In  the  meantime  I  took  up  the  subject  in  which  he  was 
engaged  actively  myself,  as  1  had  been  long  interested  in  it,  at  least  ten 
or  fifteen  years  altogether,  and  began  to  do  some  work  on  it,  and  began 
to  devise  such  instruments  and  methods  which  would  greatl}^  reduce 
the  cost  of  labor  connected  with  those  very  valuable  determinations, 
and  before  many  months  I  became  convinced  that  Prof.  Peirce's  services 
to  the  Survey  were  no  longer  necessary  and  that  they  should  not  be 
longer  retained;  that  I  could  not  in  justice  to  my  obligations  to  the 
Government  retain  Prof.  Peirce  any  Jonger.  I  therefore  called  his 
attention  to  his  attitude  in  rhe  whole  question,  and  his  not  furnishing 
practical  results,  and  the  fact  that  we  liad  new  methods  and  devices 
which  were  going  to  inevitably  outstrip  him  in  getting  those  practical 
results.  I  have  been  carrying  on  some  of  those  oi)erations  in  the  last  few 
months,  and  I  found  in  determining  the  force  of  gravity  at  several 
stations,  that  the  cost  per  station  has  been  greatly  reduced ;  something 
like  $100  per  station,  whereas  it  cost  under  the  old  methods  i)erhap8 
not  less  than  from  $1,000  to  $1,500.  something  like  that,  which  repre- 
sents something  like  the  reduction  which  has  been  made. 

I  will  say  that  after  representing  this  matter  to  Prof.  Peirce  he 
tendered  his  resignation  and  that  was  accepted  and  his  connection  with 
the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  ended.  That  is,  I  think,  a  full  history 
of  the  matter.  1  will  be  glad  to  answer  any  further  questions  any 
gentleman  may  wish  to  ask  about  it.  I  ought  perhaps  to  add,  the  judg- 
ment of  those  experts  to  whom  I  submitted  those  results  was  in  entire 
accordance  with  mine  tllat  the  material  was  not  valuable.  Perhaps  I,- 
ought  also  to  add,  as  this  question  has  been  raised,  that  there  was 
nothing  whatever  personal  in  connection  with  my  action  in  regard  to 
Prof.  Peirce,  as  there  has  not  been  anything  personal  in  connection 
with  anyone  connected  with  the  Coast  Survey.  He  was  one  of  my 
oldest  friends  in  the  Coast  Survey;  I  corresponded  with  him  ten, 
twelve,  fourteen  years  ago  on  a  subject  in  which  we  were  greatly 
interested,  and  it  so  happened  that  he  was  the  first  man  to  send  me  a 
telegram  of  congratulation  after  mj^  receiving  the  appointment  as 
Superintendent  of  the  Coast  Survey.  So  I  will  say  I  was  guided  in  this 
matter  purely  by  motives  of  what  I  believed  to  be  public  policy. 

Now,  Mr.  Chairman,  if  I  may  go  on,  this  is  a  letter  which  I  desire 
to  read  from  the  State  geologist  of  the  State  of  Missouri.  This  is 
addressed  to  a  member  of  the  Senate,  but  a  copy  of  it  has  been  put  in 
my  hands  since  1  was  here  the  other  day,  and  as  he  gives  the  opinion  of 
a  geologist  on  this  question,  I  take  pleasure  in  reading  it.     He  says : 

[Extract  from  letter  of  Arthur  W.  Winslow  to  Hon.  Franois  M.  Cockrell,  TT.  S.  Senate,  dated  Jefferson 

City,  May  28, 1894.] 

#  #  *  *  *  *  * 

1  sincerely  hope  that  this  1)111  will  not  become  a  law.  I  feel  that  it  would  practi- 
cally effect  the  disor<»anization  of  an  important  public  work  which  has  heretofore 
been  conducted  in  a  highly  efficient  manner  and  with  great  credit  to  the  Govern- 
ment, 

I  will  not  attempt  to  argue  the  case  within  the  space  of  a  letter,  but  will  content 
myself  with  an  expression  of  my  views.  You  know  that  I  am  entirely  friendly  to 
the  Geological  Survey,  and  whati  say  is  prompted  by  no  disregard  of  its  interests ; 
but  I  do  not  feel  that  that  Bureau  has  either  the  corps  or  the  equipment  to  conduct 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      155 

the  refined  geodetic  work  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey.  A  transfer  would,  I 
think,  tend  to  the  subordination  and  ultimate  deterioration  of  the  geodetic  work 
proper,  I  think  the  interests  of  the  national  as  well  as  of  State  geological  survey  & 
better  subserved  by  a  strengthening  and  rapid  extending  of  the  work  of  the  Coast 
and  Geodetic  Survey.  Upon  its  triangulation  and  precise  leveling  the  topographic 
and  other  maps  of  the  Geological  Survey  should  be  based,  I  know  that  the  past 
work  and  recent  assistance  of  this  survey  were  of  direct  and  material  aid  to  the 
Missouri  geological  survey  while  under  my  charge.     -^     *     * 

The  transfer  of  the  coast  and  marine  work  to  the  Navy  Department  is,  on  the  face, 
plausible,  but  I  see  no  advantage  in  it  that  will  in  any  way  offset  the  demoralizing 
effects  of  disorganization.  That  naval  oflScers  can  conduct  this  technical  and  highly 
scientific  work  without  the  aid  of  civilians  is  out  of  the  question,  1  speak  with 
some  knowledge  of  the  case,  being  of  a  naval  family  myself,  my  father,  several 
cousins,  and  two  brothers  having  been  in  the  service,  the  last  for  several  years  on 

coast  survey  work. 

*  *»#  *  *  #  * 

Prof.  E.  A.  Bowser,  of  Rutgers  College,  says : 

March  22,  1894. 
It  requires  mathematicians  of  a  high  order  and  several  years  of  special  training. 
There  is  no  survey  in  Europe  superior  to  it.     It  is  a  work  in  which  eyerj'  Ameri- 
can may  take  pride. 

E.  A.  Bowser, 
Rutgers  College,  New  Jersey. 

Prof.  Francis  H.  Smith,  of  the  University  of  Virginia,  says: 

University  ov  Virginia,  March  30,  1S94. 
I  am  shocked  to  learn  of  the  movement  hostile  to  the  Coast  Survey. 
It  is  incredible  that  men  acquainted  with  its  history  and  its  services  should  seek 
its  destruction,  for  division  means  that, 

Francis  H.  Smith. 

I  mpy  say  with  reference  to  Prof.  Smith  that  he  was  one  of  the  com- 
mittee of  10  or  12  persons  appointed,  I  think,  about  twenty-five  years^ 
ago,  by  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  to- 
investigate  the  work  of  the  Coast  Survey  and  to  report  what  in  their 
judgment  was  its  character,  and  such  modifications  as  they  thought 
ought  to  be  made.  That  report  is  found  in  the  report  of  the  American 
Association,  I  think,  for  the  year  1859-'60,  so  that  it  is  more  than  twenty- 
five  years  ago;  but  it  is  an  exceedingly  lengthy  and  valuable  report  of 
the  operations  of  the  Survey. 

Prof.  John  0.  Waite,  a  member  of  the  American  Society  of  Civil 
Engineers  and  Professor  of  Engineering  of  Harvard  University,  says : 

New  York,  March  30,  1894. 
We  are  advised  that  there  is  an  effort  to  be  made  to  abolish  the  Coast  Survey 
Department  or  to  break  it  into  two  parts,  giving  a  portion  of  the  work  to  the  Navy 
and  the  rest  to  the  Geological  Department.     This  I  personally  should  very  much. 
regret. 

******* 

John  C.  Wait, 
Memher  American  Society  of  Civil  Engineers 
and  Professor  of  Engineering,   Harvard  Unirei'sity . 

I  may  say  this  letter  was  written  to  me  personally,  and  how  he  waa 
advised  of  this  matter  I  do  not  know;  but  it  seems  he  did  learn. 

Prof.  Alfred  E.  Burton,  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology^ 
writes  as  follows: 

Boston,  March  SI,  1894. 
In  regard  to  the  proposed  bill  for  the  transfer  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey, 
I  assure  you  that  I  feel  most  sincerely  that  such  a  change  would  be  disastrous  to  the- 
execution  of  the  best  work  and  would  cause  a  distinct  loss  to  the  scientific  world 
generally.     *^     *     * 

Alfred  E.  Burton, 
Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology. 


156       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

I  spoke  a  moment  ago  in  regard  to  the  first  communication  being  a 
letter  from  California,  and  this  is  a  letter  written  by  the  professor  of 
structural  engineering  of  Leland  Stanford  University,  addressed  to  a 
Representative  in  Congress,  from  whom  I  have  obtained  a  copy  of  it — 
that  is,  he  has  furnished  me  with  a  copy  of  it.    It  is  as  follows: 

[Leland  Stanford  Junior  University,  Palo  Alto,  Santa  Clara  County,  Cal.] 

The  record  of  the  Coast  Survey  is  one  of  quiet,  steady,  accurate  work.  No  attempt 
has  ever  been  made  to  do  work  in  order  to  make  a  showing  or  for  political  ends. 
With  a  brot\d,  comprehensive  plan  covering  years  of  continuous,  uninterrupted 
work  for  its  completion,  they  have  gone  ahead  with  the  means  at  their  disposal, 
accomplishing  a  little  each  year  until  they  have  nearly  completed  a  network  of 
monuments  extending  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.  Monuments  that  can  abso- 
lutely be  relied  upon  for  accuracy  and  durability  and  whi(^  should  form  the  basis 
of  a  vast  system  of  accurate  topographical  surveys  similar  in  character  to  those 
possessed  by  the  civilized  nations  of  Euro])e  and  that  have  proved  of  vast  economical 
value  in  the  developing  the  internal  ways  of  communication  for  which  those  coun- 
tries are  noted.  This  method  that  has  just  been  outlined  is  in  direct  contrast  to  the 
methods  employed  by  the  topographical  surveys  of  the  Geological  Department,  who 
have  mapped  large  territories  with  imperfect  methods  and  with  nothing  more  defi- 
nite or  more  durable  than  a  fence  post  to  begin  with.  Such  maps  'are  absolutely 
unreliable  and  of  no  use  whatever  from  an  economical  or  engineering  standpoint. 
Like  the  time-table  folders  of  the  railroads,  they  represent  only  the  interests  of  the 
publishers  and  serve  well  enough  for  something  to  show,  but  practically  are  far 
from  satisfactory  in  regard  to  truthfulness. 

Any  interference  or  change  in  the  management  of  the  Coast  Survey  must  impair  its 
usefulness.  Its  history  will  show  the  effect  of  management  by  the  Navy  Depart- 
ment. 

The  right  men  in  the  right  place  are  doing  the  right  kind  of  work,  and  are  doing 
it  without  desire  for  show  or  other  reward  than  the  appreciation  of  the  value  and 
reliability  of  their  work  by  those  in  a  position  to  know  and  judge  of  its  usefulness. 

I  therefore,  unsolicited,  deem  it  my  duty  to  call  your  attention  to  the  universal 
■verdict  of  the  engineers  and  astronomers  of  the  country  as  to  the  character  of  the 
work  being  done  by  the  U.  S.  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  and  to  protest  against 
the  contemplated  change  in  its  organization. 

Chas.  B.  Wing, 
Frofessor  of  Structural  Engmeering. 

I  do  not  entirely  indorse  all  that  this  letter  says  about  those  maps  of 
the  Geological  Survey,  but  I  simply  read  what  he  says. 

Now,  I  have  a  number  of  protests  from  other  institutions  of  learning, 
but  as  they  are  nearly  all  of  the  same  character  I  may  save  time  by 
referring  to  them,  and  then  insert  them  in  my  remarks. 

UNIVERSITY   OF   MISSOURI. 

Protests  on  the  ground  that  the  plan  proposed  does  not  guarantee  work  of  the 
ijame  high  character  as  is  now  done  by  the  Survey  under  its  present  organization 
and  leadership. 

OHIO   STATE   UNIVERSITY. 

The  Survey  would  necessarily  be  held  subordinate  to  the  demands  of  their  (Navy) 
profession  and  its  work  would  be  at  all  times  liable  to  serious  and  costly  interxup- 
tions. 

WESTERN    UNIVERSITY   OF   PENNSYLVANIA. 

Dismemberment  would  destroy  coordination  of  its  work,  which  is  now  efficiently 
performed,  of  great  practical  usefulness,  and  its  results  are  such  that  every  Ameri- 
can citizen  should  be  proud  of  it. 

UNIVERSITY  OF  MINNESOTA. 

Would  result  disadvantageously  for  the  surveys  of  Minnesota. 

The  transfer  to  the  Navy  has  been  tried  and  found  unsatisfactory. 

The  high  order  of  work  demanded  on  each  of  the  several  lines  in  which  the  Sur- 
vey is  engaged — tri angulation,  astronomy,  leveling,  gravity,  topography,  hydrog- 
raphy, and  magnetics — is  such  as  can  not  be  successfully  prosecuted,  except  by  the 
most  trained  experts,  and  must  suffer  if  placed  in  other  hands. 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      157 

COLUMBIA  COLLEGE. 

[By  its  president,  Seth  Low,  and  many  members  of  its  faculty.] 

The  passage  of  the  bill  will  (1)  interfere  seriously  with  the  efficiency  of  the  impor- 
tant work  now  carried  on.  (2)  Would  ultimately  largely  increase  the  cost  of  the 
work  unless  the  standard  should  be  most  undesirably  lowered.  (3)  Would  pliif^ethe 
control  of  the  geodetic  work  in  the  U.  S.  Geological  Survey  under  the  charge  of  a 
geologist  and  anthropologist. 

UNIVERSITY   OF    WISCONSIN. 

The  value  of  the  services  rendered  by  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  is  attested 
by  the  bill  (Enloe)  itself,  which  provides  for  a  continuation  of  those  services  by  the 
dismembered  parts  of  the  Bureau.  *  *  *  The  work  of  the  Bureau  is  a  unit  and 
can  not  be  divided  among  distinct  organizations  without  serious  detriment. 

UNIVERSITY   OF   VIRGINIA. 

Regards  ^'this  measure  as  a  step  backward  in  National  progress." 

Its  labors,  the  triangulation  from  our  coasts  to  the  whole  interior  of  our  vast 
domain,  which  undertaking  will  settle  our  much  confused  geography  and  unify  and 
harmonize  the  work  of  our  State  surveys,  all  of  priceless  value  to  the  country. 

The  subjects  it  covers  are  foreign  to  naval  and  geological  fields,  both  of  which 
include  more  in  their  special  lines  than  can  well  be  accomplished  with  existing 
forces. 

If  economy  be  the  object  sought  we  respectfully  suggest  that  the  dividing  out  of 
this  great  Bureau  will  be  likely  to  secure  less  efficiency  at  greater  cost. 

LEHIGH   UNIVERSITY. 

Express  high  appreciation  of  the  scientific  and  practical  results  of  the  Survey 
and  confidence  in  its  methods  of  administration  and  believe  that  the  transfer  would 
be  detrimental  to  the  best  public  interests. 

INDIANA  ACADEMY  OF   SCIENCES. 

The  bill  will  vitally  affect  all  commercial,  economic,  educational,  and  scientific 
interests  of  the  country. 

The  disruption  of  the  work  will  lead  practically  to  its  destruction. 

The  unity  of  plan  of  its  operations  and  processes  of  measurement  would  be 
destroyed.     Under  different  management  the  methods  would  be  diff*erent. 

ThQ  Superintendent  is  custodian  of  national  standards  of  weights  and  measures. 
These  must  be  in  charge  of  men  trained  in  physical  measurements  and  research. 
This  department  of  the  service  should  be  extended  and  made  to  include  all  stand- 
ards that  may  enter  into  the  arts  and  professions,  such  as  electrical  and  others. 

By  law  these  standards  belong  under  the  control  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 
If  a  special  department  of  Aveights  and  measures  is  to  be  created,  to  make  it  efficient 
would  cost  a  considerable  sum  of  money ;  there  would  be  no  scientific  bureau  under 
the  Treasury  to  which  its  work  could  be  attached  if  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey 
were  removed. 

TECHNICAL   SOCIETY  OF   THE  PACIFIC    COAST. 

The  contemplated  step  would  lead  to  nothing  less  than  an  utter  annihilation  of  a 
meritorious  and  deserving  department  whose  work  lies  before  the  nation  as  an  open 
book,  demanding  the  admiration  of  every  citizen  who  will  give  this  matter  a 
moment's  serious  attention. 

It  can  not  be  said  that  the  work  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  has  been  con- 
fined to  abstruse  mathematical  and  scientific  problems.  On  the  contrary,  if  there 
has  ever  been  a  proof  of  the  practical  use  of  exact  science  that  proof  has  been 
amply  furnished  by  this  department  in  its  long  career  of  usefulness  and  conscien- 
tious labor. 

THE  GOVERNOR  AND   OTHER  OFFICERS   OF   THE   STATE   OF   WASHINGTON. 

It  is  believed  that  a  change  so  vitally  affecting  the  nation  in  a  most  importan 
direction,  its  commerce,  should  not  be  made  without  a  most  thorough  and  unbiased 
consideration,  and  that  by  a  commission  composed  of  men  so  eminently  practical 


158      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

and  free  from  bias  that  the  decisiou  they  reach  wouhl  commend  itself  to  all  who 
have  the  interests  of  the  country  at  heart.  Such  men  can  be  found  in  the  great 
transportation  companies,  the  marine  insurance  companies,  the  National  Academy 
of  Sciences,  and  the  great  educational  institutions  of  our  country. 

CUMBERLAND    UNIVERSITY,    LEBANON,   TENN. 

The  bill  will,  in  our  opinion,  deprive  the  GoAernment  of  the  source  of  many  of  its 
greatest,  most  illustrious,  and  useful  scientific  results. 

Expediency,  economy,  prudence,  and  the  experience  of  sixty  years  combine  to 
forbid  the  dismemberment  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey.     Six  reasons: 

(1)  Transfer  made  twice  and  found  detrimental. 

(2)  Scientific  men  have  always  opposed  it. 

(3)  Commercial  and  marine  organizations  have  never  asked  for  it. 

(4)  Leading  naval  and  army  officere  have  opposed  it. 

(5)  Character  of  work  interferes  with  naval  training,  and  in  case  of  war  would 
have  to  be  abandoned. 

(6)  Long  course  of  theoretical  and  practical  training  necessary. 

Prof.  Lewis  M.  Haupt,  late  professor  of  civil  engineering  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania,  and  a  learned  engineer  on  topographical 
matters,  says: 

*  *  *  The  strongest  reasons  for  decliniug  to  dissever  the  Coast  Survey  arises 
from  the  frequent  changes  in  the  stations  and  duties  of  the  officers  engaged  in  the 
bureaus  to  which  it  is  proposed  to  transfer  it,  thus  destroying,  to  a  large  extent,  all 
sense  of  personal  responsibility  for  results  or  their  effects,  and  making  it  necessary 
to  obtain  records  from  two  bureaus  which  are  now  supplied  by  one. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  He  is  the  one  who  laid  the  pipe  lines? 
Prof.  Mendenhall.  Yes,  sir.    Prof.  Fuertes  I  think  has  written  a 
letter  to  the  committee,  but  he  says : 

Neither  the  education  nor  the  objects  in  life  of  the  sailor  and  the  geologist  con- 
tribute to  the  proper  administration  of  problems  which  on  account  of  special  experi- 
ence the  Coast  Survey  is  the  best  organization  to  solve. 

The  geodetic  engineer  must  be  a  specialist,  and  must  dedicate  his  entire  life  not 
only  to  a  certain  amount  of  routine  work  but  to  the  investigation  of  the  most  difficult 
portions  of  several  mathematical  and  physical  sciences. 

The  results  that  it  (Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey)  can  turn  out  and  has  turned  out 
have  made  the  scientific  reputation  of  this  country  second  to  that  of  no  other,  and 
it  can  not  be  kept  up  by  the  fortuitous  detail  of  inexperienced  men  to  perform  cer- 
tain work  simply  because  their  turn  for  it  has  arrived,  whether  or  not  they  are  com- 
petent or  incompetent.     *     *     ^ 

The  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  Tacoma  passed  a  resolution  against 
the  transfer,  which  is  as  follows : 

Resolved,  That  the  services  rendered  to  commerce  during  the  past  seventy-five 
years  by  the  U.  S.  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  have  been  both  efficient  and  satis- 
factory. 

That  the  interests  of  our  country  will  be  best  subserved  by  continuing  the  work 
of  the  U.  S.  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  as  it  is  at  present  organized. 

The  Chamber  of  Commerce  also,  of  San  Francisco,  passed  a  series  of 
resolutions  which  I  think  have  been  sent  to  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives : 

To  the  honorable  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  in  Congress  assembled : 

Your  memorialist,  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  the  city  of  San  Francisco,  hereby 
desires  to  express  its  great  regret  that  a  bill  has  been  introduced  in  Congress  (H.  R. 
6338)  proposing  to  disturb  the  present  efficient  organization  of  the  U.  S.  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey. 

The  work  of  this  Bureau  of  our  Government  in  the  past  has  been  eminently  satis- 
factory; it  has  gained  the  entire  confidence  of  our.  country  and  the  acknowledged 
admiration  of  foreign  governments  conducting  similar  surveys. 

Congress  has  assigned  to  this  Bureau  the  execution  of  work  demanding  experience 
of  the  highest  class.  That  which  it  has  done  commends  itself  so  strongly  to  the 
maritime  and  other  interests  represented  by  this  Chamber  that  it  is  to  be  earnestly 
hoped  the  just  claims  of  the  public  service  will  not  now  be  ignored  by  the  passage 
of  the  above-named  bill. 


TRANSFER.  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      159 

The  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  San  Diego  also  i)assed  the  following 
resolutions: 

On  March  19  a  bill  was  introduced  in  the  House  of  Representatives  by  Mr. 
Enloe,  of  Tennessee,  "To  abolish  the  Bureau  in  the  Treasury  Dei)artnient  known  as 
the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  and  transfer  the  work  of  said  Bureau  to  the  Hydro- 
graphic  Office  in  the  Navy  Department,  and  the  Geological  Survey  in  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  Interior.^' 

As  representatives  of  the  commercial  interests  of  the  port  of  San  Diego,  Cal.,  we 
earnestly  protest  against  this  attempt  to  abolish  a  Bureau  which  has  done  so  much 
in  the  last  forty-live  years  by  its  accurate  surveys  of  the  harbors  of  the  Pacific 
coast,  and  its  accurate  maps,  to  lessen  the  dangers  of  navigation  and  to  develop 
coastwise  commerce. 

We  have  every  confidence  in  the  present  management  of  the  Bureau  and  are  con- 
vinced that  the  disruption  of  the  present  organization  and  the  division  of  its  pres- 
ent work  between  the  Navy  and  Interior  Departments  would  be  detrimental  to  the 
best  interests  of  the  Government. 

I  will  say  in  regard  to  these  chambers  of  commerce  I  do  not  know 
how  the  resolutions  originated.  Here  is  one  which  came  also  a  day  or 
two  ago  from  the  Philadelphia  Maritime  Exchange.     It  says : 

To  the  honorable  the  Senate  and  Bouse  of  Repn'sentatives  of  the  United  States  in  Congress 

assembled : 

This  memorial  of  the  Philadelphia  Maritime  Exchange  respectfully  represents: 

That  a  bill  has  been  introduced  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States 
(H,  R.  6338)  having  for  its  object  the  abolishment  of  the  Bureau  in  the  Treasury 
IDepartment  known  as  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  and  the  transfer  of  the  work 
of  said  Bureau  to  the  Hydrographic  Office  in  the  Navy  Department,  and  to  the  Geo- 
logical Survey  in  the  Department  of  the  Interior. 

That  in  the  judgment  of  your  memorialist  the  efficient  and  highly  imjiortant  work 
done  by  the  said  Bureau  in  the  many  years  of  its  existence,  and  the  continued  need 
for  its  services,  w  arrant  its  continuance  as  a  separate  Bureau,  especially  equipped 
as  this  is,  to  carry  on  the  delicate  and  technical  operations  coming  within  its  prov- 
ince, the  thorough  and  intelligent  performance  of  which  in  the  past  by  this  Bureau 
has  been  of  the  greatest  value  to  the  country;  therefore. 

Your  memorialist.  The  Philadelphia  Maritime  Exchange,  earnestly  petitions  your 
honorable  bodies  that  no  action  be  taken  to  dismember  the  Bureau  known  as  the 
Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  or  to  remove  it  to  the  care  of  other  departments;  but 
that  it  be  retained  in  the  Treasury  Department,  as  at  present. 

Geo.  E.  Earnshaw, 

President. 

Attest : 

[seal.]  E.  R.  Sharwood, 

Secretary. 

Philadelphia,  May  26,  1894. 

Now,  I  will  pass  to  some  of  these  longer  communications.  I  would 
like  to  read  a  letter  written  by  Prof.  E.  A.  Fuertes,  who  is  director  of 
the  College  of  Engineering  at  Cornell  University,  and  a  very  distin- 
guished man  in  his  line,  who  has  only  recently  completed  extensive 
works  in  Brazil  for  the  Government,  and  whose  judgment  is  worthy  of 
consideration,  particularly  on  account  of  his  long  acquaintance  with 
the  work  of  the  Bureau.     His  letter  is  as  follows: 

To  the  Committee  on  Naval  Affairs: 

Gentlemen:  I  have  read  with  great  alarm  the  tenor  of  the  bill  which  intends  to 
suppress  the  work  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  breaking  it  into  two  parts  to 
be  assigned,  respectively,  to  the  Hydrographic  Ofiice  and  the  Geological  Survey.  I 
feel  it  my  duty,  as  a  student  of  science  and  as  a  professional  man  intimately 
acquainted  with  the  aims  and  results  to  be  accomplished  by  the  Coast  Survey,  to 
make  as  strong  a  protest  as  may  be  possible  against  the  enactment  of  a  law  that 
will  do  incalculable  harm  to  the  best  interests  of  scientific  progress,  and  also  to  the 
Hydrographic  Office  and  the  Geological  Survey.  Neither  the  education  nor  the 
objects  in  life  of  the  sailor  and  the  geologist  contribute  to  the  proper  administra- 
tion of  the  problems  which,  on  account  of  special  experience,  the  Coast  Survey  is 
the  best  organization  to  solve.     It  may   be,    and   doubtless   is,  a  popular  notion, 


160      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

having  some  apparent  justification,  to  believe  that  a  sailor  educated  at  a  naval 
academy  can  survey  our  coasts;  but  such  is  not  the  case.  It  may  also  be  supposed 
that  the  geologist  need  only  to  employ  surveyors  to  reproduce  the  features  of  a  given 
topography;  but  such  is  not  the  case  also.  The  geodetic  engineer  must  be  a  spe- 
cialist and  must  dedicate  his  entire  life  not  only  to  a  certain  amount  of  routine  work, 
hut  to  the  investigation  of  the  most  difiicult  portions  of  several  mathematical  and 
physical  sciences.  The  Coast  Survey  prepares  the  groundwork  of  a  very  large 
number  of  problems  from  which  an  enlightened  nation  Avill  derive  incalculable 
benefits.  Its  aim  is  not  to  reproduce  in  a  snuill  scale  the  features  of  land  and  water, 
the  heights  of  mountains  and  depth  of  oceans;  this  is  indeed  only  an  incidental 
feature  of  the  much  deeper  meaning  of  its  work. 

It  is  perfectly  proper  for  a  nation  like  ours  to  dedicate  considerable  sums  of 
money  for  the  preparation  of  work  of  so  advanced  a  nature  that  its  importance  may 
not  be  understood  by  a  vast  majority  of  its  inhabitants;  in  fact,  one  of  the  most 
persistent  phases  of  human  nature  is  the  resistance  to  improvement  by  the  very 
persons  most  likely  to  be  benefited  by  the  advanced  work  of  its  leaders;  ;md  even 
the  short  history  of  this,  the  most  enlightened  nation,  is  not  lacking  in  typical 
examples  of  this  peculiarity,  as  witnessed  by  the  slavery  question,  the  Pacific  Rail- 
road, the  Erie  Canal,  the  canalization  of  the  American  Isthmus,  etc.  Such  a  work 
as  the  (Joast  Survey  is  called  upon  to  produce  requires  absolutely  the  employment 
of  experienced  experts.  Nothing  is  more  likely  to  produce  perfunctory  and  ineffi- 
cient work  in  undertakings  of  this  nature  than  the  proposed  transfer  of  the  Coast 
Survey  to  a  military  organization.  A  recent  example  of  this  fact  can  be  seen  in  our 
naval  observatory,  which  in  times  j^ast  was  a  great  credit  to  the  intelligence  and 
power  for  scientific  thought  of  this  great  country ;  but  since  it  became  subject  to 
the  rules  of  military  discipline,  it  has  been,  as  to  original  investigation,  as  silent  as 
the  grave,  and  the  American  import  of  national  astronomy  has  dwindled  down  to 
insignificant  proportions. 

The  astronomical  work  of  the  Navy  is  to-day  eclipsed  by  that  of  a  score  or  more 
of  private  observatories ;  the  knowledge  of  our  earth  as  aft'ecting  problems  of  the 
utmost  moment  to  the  human  race  will  be  utterly  demoralized  and  rendered  fruitless 
by  such  a  transfer.  The  Coast  Survey  has  now  the  opportunity  of  picking  the  best 
scientists  from  this  or  any  other  country,  who,  by  their  special  training  and  per- 
sonal aptitude  and  genius,  have  been  born  for  its  work.  The  results  that  it  can 
turn  out  and  has  turned  out  has  made  the  scientific  reputation  of  this  country  second 
to  that  of  no  other,  and  it  can  not  be  kept  up  by  the  fortuitous  detail  of  inex- 
perienced men  to  perform  certain  work  simply  because  their  turn  for  it  has  arrived, 
whether  they  are  competent  or  incompetent.  Of  course  it  can  be  said  that  only 
competent  men  will  be  detailed ;  but  the  horizon  from  which  to  choose  these  men 
is  not  only  exceedingly  limited;  but,  furthermore,  physicists  can  not  be  improvised 
to  order  any  more  than  a  general  or  a  poet. 

Further,  such  a  step  is  retrogressive  and  unworthj"  of  the  scientific  status  of  the 
country.  This  change  is  opposed  to  the  policy  which  made  the  transfer  of  the  Weather 
Bureau  from  a  military  organization  to  a  civil  bureau,  where  specialists  can  be 
trained,  and  will  in  the  end  become  experts,  to  the  great  benefit  of  the  commercial, 
industrial,  and  agricultural  interests  of  the  country.  The  same  reasons  that  obtained 
for  that  transfer  exist  with  momentous  consequences  against  the  contradictory  trans- 
fer proposed.  I  am  prepared  to  prove  also  before  any  committe  of  Congress  that  the 
Navy  Department  does  not  give  in  any  portion  of  the  career  of  its  members  the  train- 
ing that  is  necessary  for  the  purpose,  neither  in  the  requirements  for  admission  to 
the  Naval  Academy,  nor  in  the  curriculum  of  the  studies  prosecuted  there,  nor  in  the 
subsequent  employment  of  its  members.  The  mere  work  of  its  scientific  training  is 
inferior  to  that  of  hundreds  of  private  schools.  It  must  not  be  understood  that  I 
desire  to  belittle  our  naval  establishment;  but  the  Naval  Academy  as  well  as  the 
Military  Academy  at  West  Point  are  very  much  behind  the  times,  not  on  account  of 
lack  of  enthusiasm  or  dutifulness  or  manliness  or  probity  on  the  part  of  the  officers 
charged  with  their  educational  policies;  the  fault  is  altogether  on  the  side  of  Con- 
gress, that  fails  to  make  suitable  appropriations  for  the  very  expensive  teaching 
demanded  nowadays  by  the  advanced  condition  of  our  methods  of  scientific  instruc- 
tion. 

Much  can  be  said  against  breaking  into  two  separate  provinces  a  work  in  which 
such  a  separation  of  administration  is  an  inherent  impossibility  due  to  the  nature 
and  correlations  of  the  work  itself.  It  would  be  as  impossible  to  obtain  suitable 
results  from  such  a  disjointed  arrangement  as  it  would  be  to  make  a  chronometer  by 
putting  together  wheels  of  any  size  in  a  haphazard  fashion. 

It  is  true  that  in  monarchical  countries  much  of  the  work  of  the  coast  survey  is 
done  under  military  organizations,  but  the  results  thus  obtained,  with  a  dominant 
military  pur])08e  in  view  (for  which  we  have  no  need),  do  not  compare  in  direct  use- 
fulness, transcendental  value,  economy,  and  swiftness  of  execution,  with  what  our 
Coast  Survey  has  done,  and  has  made  it  conspicuously  the  first  scientific  organiza- 


TRANSFER  OF  C0A8T  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      161 

tion  of  the  country,  respected  and  praised  by  all  the  academies  of  science  and  national 
scientific  institutions  of  every  civilized  government;  and  while  opinions  differ  as  to 
the  scientific  value  of  our  Geological  Survey,  there  is  absolute  unanimity  among  the 
scientists  of  the  world  as  to  the  useful  work  of  the  Coast  Survey.  Upon  expert 
investigation  it  will  also  be  found  that  in  Europe  the  degree  of  military  interference 
in  these  surveys  is  not  equally  intense  in  every  country,  or  even  in  the  various  col- 
onies in  the  same  country ;  and  it  will  be  found,  without  exception,  that  those  coun- 
tries like  England,  for  example,  which  are  freer  atid  less  under  the  stress  of  militarism, 
the  scientific  merit  of  their  surveys  are  in  the  inverse  ratio  of  their  military  control. 
This  is  especially  conspicuous  in  the  Indian  survey.  I  am  sure  that  the  rank  of 
supremacy  now  held  by  us  in  this  branch  of  the  national  service  will  assume  a  posi- 
tion of  mediocrity,  if  not  worse,  by  the  abolition  of  the  best  means  of  prosecuting 
the  ground  work  carried  on  so  adjuirably  by  our  Coast  Survey. 

Taking  for  granted  that  the  Geological  Survey  may  do  such  violence  to  its  natural 
instincts  that  its  future  work  in  geodesy  may  become  independent  of  the  natural 
geological  bias  that  will  tend  to  subordinate  geodesy  to  geology ;  taking  for 
granted,  also,  that  as  a  civil  organization  that  Survey  may  eventually  employ  proper 
scientific  experts;  what  adA^autages  will  result  by  such  a  change  that  are  not  now 
better  served  by  the  present  Coast  Survey?  Many  of  the  purposes  of  geology  can 
be  effectively  served  by  simple  approximate  delineations  of  the  earth's  crust;  in 
fact,  approximate  sketches  will  be  sufficient  for  geological  purposes  in  a  vast 
majority  of  its  topographical  needs.  Is  it  then  to  be  expected  that  a  geologist  will 
spend  the  money  necessary  for  geodetic  accuracy,  which  is  not  indispensable  for  his 
purpose,  to  the  prejudice  of  the  geological  hobbies  which  give  enthusiasm  to  his 
life  workf 

Again,  there  are  now  stored  in  the  Coast  Survey  Office  tons  of  notebooks  and 
interwoven  data,  some  of  them  not  yet  worked  up,  the  value  of  which  is  equally 
important  to  the  geodetic  and  hydrographic  work.  Upon  what  system  of  division 
can  the  share  of  this  valuable  and  expensive  data  bo  distributed  between  the  Geo- 
logical Survey  and  the  Hydrographic  Office?  My  experience  in  cases  of  this  kind 
indicates  that  these  notebooks  will  be  mixed  up  or  thrown  away,  thus  rendering  them 
useless  even  with  a  great  expense  and  risk  of  mistakes  in  recopying,  thus  losing  all 
the  advantages  for  which  the  expense  of  collecting  them  was  incurred. 

In  my  judgment,  based  upon  no  little  experience  in  matters  of  this  nature,  as  well 
as  with  men  and  with  affairs,  I  am  led  to  believe  that  such  a  transfer  as  is  now  pro- 
posed will  deprive  the  Government  of  perhaps  its  most  brilliant  and  prolific  scien- 
tific activity  without  benefiting  the  Navy  or  the  Geological  Survey.  It  seems  also  an 
injustice  to  deprive  the  Coast  Survey  from  reaping  the  benefits  of  its  scientific 
labors.  The  nature  of  the  case  made  its  jirogress  necessarily  slow  in  the  beginning; 
and  it  has  been  constantly  harassed  both  by  prejudice  and  jealousies  and  by  the 
exactions  of  persons  who  could  not  understand  that  the  active  work  and  hardships 
of  triangulation  from  mountain  peaks  was  indispensable  as  the  basis  and  founda- 
tion of  all  subsequent  work ;  and  since  the  time  of  the  great  Hassler,  the  Presidents 
and  Congressmen  have  not  adequately  appreciated  the  heroic  work  done  by  the 
Coast  Survey  in  triangulating  the  vast  extent  of  our  territory.  It  seems  to  have 
been  expected  that  instead  of  preparing  a  solid  foundation  for  the  truthful  topog- 
raphy of  our  country,  and  the  actual  shape  of  the  earth,  pretty  maps  filled  with 
inaccuracies,  of  no  possible  value,  should  have  taken  the  place  of  the  early  empty 
sheets  with  chains  of  triangles  looking  like  the  spider  web  made  by  a  crazy  spider. 
Yet  such  work  is  absolutely  indispensable  to  make  useful  the  delineation  of  the  fea- 
tures of  our  continent,  and  for  scientific  purposes  t]ie  difficult  work  is  of  an  impor- 
tance that  can  not  be  exaggerated.  It  is  indeed  a  strange  fact  that,  with  very  few 
exceptions,  we  have  to-day  a  more  accurate  knowledge  of  the  service  of  the  moon 
than  of  any  county  in  any  State  of  the  Union;  and  I  believe  that  the  proposed  trans- 
fer will  make  confusion  worse  confounded,  and  will  postpone  for  an  indefinite  num- 
ber of  years  the  fruits  of  the  labors  which  -the  Coast  Survey  is  about  to  reap  with 
a  degree  of  credit  of  which  any  nation  might  well  be  proud;  and^which,  if  lost,  could 
not  be  recovered  without  heavy  expenses. 

There  are  at  present  a  large  number  of  physical  discoveries  which  have  been 
brought  to  a  standstill,  for  lack  of  sufficient  knowledge  in  some  directions,  like 
electricity,  the  force  of  gravity,  the  fate  of  the  earth  upon  its  course  about  the  sun, 
etc.  The  settlement  of  these  open  questions  are  of  immense  economical  and  utilita- 
rian value  to  the  denizens  of  the  earth;  aud  many  of  these  questions  can  not  be 
developed  much  further  until  some  of  the  work  which  the  Coast  Survey  iias  under 
way  may  throw  light  upon  the  very  dark  corners  of  our  present  knowledge  of  phys- 
ical science. 

It  may  be  said  that  this  method  of  thinking  lacks  the  horse  sense  of  practical  life, 
and  are  the  dreams  of  college  professors  and  long-haired  enthusiasts ;  yet  similar 
lines  of  argument  were  made  to  Columbus,  Luther,  Galileo,  and  Wendell  Phillips; 
and  the  inquisition  has  filled  thousands  of  graves  and  destroyed  epochs  of  progress, 

4561 11 


162      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

because  the  popular  seutiment  is  usually  unable  to  appreciate  benefits  to  be  obtained 
by  activities  they  do  not  understand.  It  may  also  be  argued  that  both  the  Navy 
Department  and  the  (Geological  Survey  can  also  work  in  the  proper  channels  that 
will  develop  the  scientihc  progress  so  urgently  demanded,  as  well  as  the  Coast  Sur- 
vey;  but  this  would  be  an  idle  assumption.  Our  present  age  demands  specializa- 
tion in  everything.  AVhile  it  is  difficult  to  understand  the  logic  that  Avould  justify 
the  throwing  out  of  their  sphere  the  Navy  officers,  who  should  have  plenty  to  occupy 
their  time  and  activity  in  naval  matters,  it  is  still  more  difficult  to  perceive  any 
good  reasons  for  switching  them  into  investigations  upon  subjects  foreign  to  their 
calling  and  about  which  they  have  no  adequate  conception,  and  absolutely  no 
training  at  all.  We  might,  with  better  reason,  put  the  Weather  Service  in  charge 
of  thesailors,  because  the  Navy  of  the  nation  and  its  commerce  are  so  much  affected 
by  the  laws  of  storms;  or  we  might  also  jmt  the  Navy  Department  under  the  Geo- 
logical Survey,  because  the  forms  of  our  coasts  and  the  bottoms  of  our  oceans  are  a 
legitimate  field  of  study  for  the  geologist.  I  invoke  the  exercise  of  conscience  and 
justice  in  government.  The  trvie  meaning  of  the  assault  upon  the  Coast  Survey  is 
neither  patriotic  nor  disinterested.  It  is  the  illegitimate  outcome  of  a  long  struggle 
that  has  made  the  success  ot  the  Coast  Survey  the  object  of  envy  for  many  years 
past,  and  ignoble  jealousies,  not  worthy  of  serious  consideration,  for  they  are  born 
of  class  prejudices  and  unwarrantable  ambition,  which  now  threaten  to  consign  to 
obscurity  one  of  the  best  scientific  bureaus  of  our  country.  A  gain  in  efficiency 
by  the  proj)Osed  change  is  as  impossible  as  a  gain  in  economy  of  administration,  for 
it  can  not  be  supposed  that  there  is  not  plenty  of  work  to  be  done  by  our  naval  officers 
in  their  own  field,  and  the  Geological  Survey  certainly  should  not  have  sinecurists 
waiting  for  additional  business  to  give  them  employment.  If  geodetic  work  is  to  be 
done,  it  must  be  paid  for,  no  matter  who  does  it.  The  question  to  consider  would 
be,  who  has  more  experience,  w^ho  is  better  trained,  and  what  organization  possesses 
the  technical  requirements  to  do  the  technical  work  demanded? 

I  believe  that  I  have  no  prejudices,  as  I  have  no  interests  of  any  nature  whatever 
in  reference  to  the  subject,  beyond  a  desire  to  see  our  scientific  work  respected 
among  other  nations  by  its  solidity,  truthfulness,  and  ever  increasing  usefulness. 
I  believe  I  have  had  sufficient  knowledge  and  have  had  sufficient  contact  with  the 
three  interests  involved,  viz,  the  Geological  Survey,  the  Navy,  and  the  Coast  Sur- 
vey, by  critical  study,  personal  experience,  and  scic  ntitic  training,  to  believe  that  I 
am  competent  to  judge  that  the  proposed  change  is  unwise  and  needless.  I  can  also 
say  that  if  I  were  mistaken  or  utterly  incompetent  to  pass  judgment  on  the  matter 
upon  my  own  deductions,  I  cannot  certainly  be  mistaken  in  the  statement  of  the 
fact  that  I  do  not  know  one  jjerson  capable  of  judging  upon  tfie  true  import  of  the 
Coast  Survey  whose  opinion  does  not  coincide  with  mine.  I  further  believe  that  it 
would  be  exceedingly  easy,  and  the  duty  of  Congress,  before  such  an  important  change 
is  made,  to  obtain  the  expert  opinion  of  the  scientific  bodies  in  this  country  or,  at 
least,  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences;  or  to  summon  before  them  such  disinterested 
ex])erts,  as  I  have  no  doubt  could  be  obtained  by  the  hundreds,  whose  names  and 
judgment  would  be  a  guaranty  of  their  fitness  to  testify  upon  the  merits  of  this 
question,  and  who,  I  venture  to  say,  will  oppose  such  a  change. 

In  many  Government  undertakings,  the  choice  of  evils  is  a  necessary  expedient 
even  though  it  must  necessarily  lead  to  waste  of  resources.  I  think,  however,  that 
it  would  be  more  beneficial  to  the  country  to  lose  the  benefits  thsit  might  be  derived 
from  a  minute  geological  survey,  if  such  should  be  the  case,  rather  than  injure  the 
preexisting  rights  and  prerequisite  labor  of  the  Coast  Survey;  but  I  am  very  cer- 
tain that  no  such  loss  is  necessary  or  in  the  least  probable  if  the  Coast  Survey  is  let 
alone. 

The  geological  survey  is  a  question  of  vast  importance ;  but  its  interests  can  not 
suffer  for  the  lack  of  an  accurate  triangulation.  In  fact,  its  director  told  me  a  few 
months  ago,  before  several  witnesses,  that  the  ''plane  table"  (which  is  rather  a 
coarse  surveying  instrument  employed  l)y  engineers  for  hlling  in  topographical 
details)  was  the  most  accurate  instrument  he  had  found  for  his  purposes.  It  certainly 
answers  all  the  re([uirements  for  details  of  restricted,  or  not  large  areas;  and  if  the 
geological  features  of  so  large  a  surface  as  a  State  have  to  be  delineated,  the  neces- 
sary smallness  of  the  scale  will  obliterate  such  details;  and  only  api)roximate 
features  and  conventional  signs  admit  of  being  recorded  in  such  ma})s.  Eventually 
all  geological  detail  must  be  studied  from  the  large  scale  sheet,  on  which  the  tri- 
angulation is  of  no  moment  whatever. 

I  can  see  no  objections,  in  the  case  of  the  Geological  Survey,  that  it  should  make 
such  jdan-etable  surveys  as  it  needs,  resting  on  such  triangulation  as  it  may  need, 
and  if  such  work  can  be  utilized  by  the  Coast  Survey  in  filling  in  details  so  sur- 
veyed, so  much  the  better.  But  I  can  see  also  a  decided  advantage  in  retaining  in 
the  control  of  the  Coast  Survey  the  triangulation,  gravimetric,  magnetic,  metrolog- 
ical,  tidal,  hydrographic,  and  other  scientific  work  that  can  not  and  will  not  be 
properly  cared  for  by  the  Navy  or  by  the  geologists,  unless  their  organizations 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY       163 

reproduce  in  duplicate  what  the  Coast  Survey  now  does  much  more  economically 
and  of  the  superior  grade  demonstrated  by  experience. 

I  have  also  a  few  selections  made  from  the  public  press.  Here  is  an 
article  from  the  Sun  of  Wednesday,  April  18, 1894 : 

THE   SURVEYS  OF  NEW  YORK  HARBOR. 

If  we  were  to  search  the  records  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  at  Washington 
we  should  find  that  a  very  large  fraction  of  them  are  the  surveys,  the  discussions, 
and  the  recommendations  forming  the  documentary  evidence  of  the  part  that  Sur- 
vey has  taken,  within  the  past  sixty  years,  in  promoting  the  prosperity  of  New  York 
City. 

*  *  ^  *  #  *  # 

It  has  also  provided  the  State  of  New  York  with  a  series  of  charts  of  her  entire 
coast  line  that  are  unexcelled  by  those  of  any  nation  on  earth.  Work  like  that 
which  has  stimulated  our  prosperity  has  been  done  for  every  harbor  in  the  country 
in  proportion  to  its  importance.  The  charts  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  are 
accepted  in  the  courts  as  accurate.  Land  questions  have  repeatedly  been  settled  by 
reference  to  them.  For  several  years  an  average  of  20,000  x>erson8  a  year  were  ques- 
tioned as  to  the  accuracy  of  these  charts,  and  the  result  has  shown  that  they  are 
practically  perfect,  though  some  of  them  now  need  revision. 

April  9,  1894. 

*  *  *  *  *  *  # 

The  surveys  and  cartographic  products  of  this  Bureau  have  never  been  surpassed 
in  any  part  of  the  world.  There  is  much  work  still  before  it.  Considerations  of 
expediency  and  economy  are  opposed  to  the  dismemberment  of  the  Coast  and  Geo- 
detic Survey. 

Here  is  an  article  from  the  Boston  Evening  Transcript  of  Thursday, 
April  5,  1894,  which  is  as  follows : 

THE  ATTACK  ON  THE  COAST  SURVEY. 

That  restless  spirit  of  change  which  from  time  to  time  takes  one  or  another  of  our 
governmental  institutions  for  its  target  has  again  broken  loose  in  Washington,  and 
is  this  time  bending  its  energies  against  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey.  This  is  to 
be  regretted,  for  the  Survey  has  been  for  more  than  half  a  century  a  department  of 
which  we  might  with  reason  be  proud,  and  an  injury  to  it  of  the  nature  of  the 
present  attack  can  not  be  otherwise  than  a  serious  matter.  *  *  # 

The  work  of  the  Coast  Survey  is  even  more  important  than  may  appear  on  first 
thought.  The  law  which  instituted  it  required  it  to  survey  the  sea  for  three  leagues 
from  the  shore,  the  land  for  three  miles  inland,  the  navigable  waters  of  the  country, 
and  when  requested  to  do  so  by  the  States,  to  furnish  them  such  information  and 
such  general  surveys  as  they  desired.  The  plan  of  this  has  been  carried  out,  and 
nearly  every  State  in  the  Union  has  been  substantially  aided  by  the  excellent  work 
of  the  Survey.  It  is  continually  surveying  and  resurveying  our  shores,  the  forms 
of  which  are  subject  to  change;  it  is  at  work  in  our  harbors — its  charts,  which 
closely  follow  any  natural  changes,  being  the  mariner's  safeguard ;  it  is  aiding  in 
the  development  of  new  harbors,  and  it  is  giving  its  advice  where  such  advice  is 
deemed  advantageous. 

*  *  i*  #  *  *  # 

The  movement  against  the  Coast  Survey  does  not  seem  in  any  way  to  be  a  parti- 
san one,  but  it  is  rather  brought  forward  through  personal  feeling  against  individ- 
uals. The  attack  is  to  be  regretted,  for  it  seems  reasonable  to  assert  that  there  is  no 
department  of  our  Government  work  in  which  experience  is  of  more  importance, 
and  in  which  injury  will  more  quickly  follow  hasty  or  ill-advised  change  than  in 
this  Survey.  It  is  to  be  hoped,  therefore,  that  scientific  and  commercial  men  may 
make  their  influence  so  strongly  felt  as  to  retain  the  present  excellent  system,  which 
has  been  for  so  long  a  time  an  honor  and  a  credit  to  our  country. 

Here  is  an  article  from  the  Commonwealth  of  Boston,  Saturday,  April 
7,  1894. 


164      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

THE   COAST   SURVEY. 


The  proposed  transfer,  therefore,  should  it  be  accomplished,  means  the  end  of  good 
and  reliable  work  for  a  long  time  to  come,  or  until  other  assistants  can  have  acquired 
the  skill  which  the  present  men  already  have.  The  work  is  a  sj)ecialized  work  of  a 
high  class,  and  its  details  can  not  be  acquired  in  a  moment.  The  transfer  as  sug- 
gested would  not  be  unlike  the  action  of  a  great  uewsi)aper,  which  issues  an  edict 
discharging  the  compositors  and  dividing  their  duties  among  the  editors  and  report- 
ers. The  latter  are  briirht  men;  they  are  intelligent  and  skillful;  but,  in  the  tirst 
place,  they  lack  that  experience  and  handiness  at  the  case  which  is  so  necessary  to 
the  typesetter,  and  in  the  second  place,  they  have  other  duties  already  which  now 
occupy  them  and  which,  if  followed  out,  would  leave  them  but  little  time  for  their 
additional  duties.  The  cases  are  very  nearly  parallel ;  it  is  proposed  to  abolish  the 
present  Survey,  to  discharge  the  experienced  men,  and  to  place  the  work  in  the 
hands  of  other  men,  intelligent  to  be  sure,  but  lacking  those  most  essential  elements, 
technical  skill  and  ex])erience. 

It  is  a  little  difficult  to  believe  that  such  a  i^roposition  could  be  made  in  serious 
earnest;  but  it  is  indeed  serious,  and  it  behooves  our  scientific  men  and  institutions 
to  use  their  influence  to  prevent  the  destruction  of  this,  one  of  the  most  creditable 
of  our  governmental  institutions. 

Here  is  an  article  from  the  Columbus  Dispatch  of  Monday,  April  16, 
1894,  which  reads  in  this  manner: 

THE  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

If  strict  attention  to  its  legitimate  business  and  unquestioned  efficiency  and  suc- 
cess in  doing  its  work  could  save  any  bureau  of  the  General  Government  from  the 
danger  of  unfriendly  or  experimental  reconstruction,  then,  by  all  means,  the  U.  S. 
Coast  Survey  should  be  exempt.  It  appears,  however,  that  a  bill  is  now  before 
Congress,  wliich,  if  passed,  will  result  in  the  dismemberment  of  the  bureau  as  at 
present  constituted,  and  in  greatly  restricting  the  range  of  its  work.     *     «     * 

But  what  would  this  change  involve  ?  It  would  make  the  bureau  a  subordinate 
branch  of  one  of  the  military  arms  of  the  Government,  and  consequently  subject  to 
the  interruptions  and  suspensions  which  the  primary  and  main  business  of  this 
department  wonld  necessitate.  It  would  put  the  survey  under  the  control  of  offi- 
cers whose  ambitions  and  rewards  would  lie  in  an  entirely  different  field.  It  would 
put  an  end  to  the  civilian  control  under  which  all  the  credit  of  the  Survey  has  thus 
far  been  won. 

Then  follows  an  article  from  the  Guernsey  Times,  of  Cambridge, 
Ohio,  dated  Thursday,  April  19,  1894: 

KEEP  IT  OUT   OF   POLITICS. 

*  *  *  If  there  is  any  Bureau  of  the  Government  that  has  had  an  efficient,  eco- 
nomical, and  blameless  administration  it  is  the  Coast  Survey.  It's  work  has  been 
one  of  the  honors  of  American  science.  If  the  rule  ^*let  well  enough  alone''  is  ever 
enforced,  this  is  surely  a  proper  case. 

As  now  organized,  the  Survey  makes  up  its  staff  from  the  best  astronomers  and 
mathematicians  of  the  country,  and  to  this  free  selection  its  great  achievements  are 
largely  due.  The  change  proposed  would  result  in  confining  its  selection  to  Navy 
officers,  and  even  with  these  the  Survey  would  hold  second  place  Their  first  duty 
and  highest  ambition  would  be  found  in  the  naval  service  proper,  and  if  a  war  cloud 
should  appear  this  outside  work  would  be  '^whistled  down  the  wind"  forthwith. 

The  Times,  of  Minneapolis,  of  April  7,  1894,  has  the  following: 

THE   GEODETIC   SURVEY. 

*  *  *  In  time  of  war  the  Survey  suffered  because  the  Navy  was  busy  with  other 
matters.  Yet  the  Survey  was  necessary  to  the  successful  prosecution  of  war.  The 
Army  and  Navy  during  the  late  Avar  depended  at  critical  times  upon  the  work 
done  by  the  experts  upon  the  Coast  Survey.  If  they  had  waited  for  the  Navy  to 
have  perfected  the  system  they  would  have  found  the  work  done  too  late. 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      165 

The  Tribune,  of  Minneapolis,  April  17,  1894,  says : 

DEMOCRATIC  ECONOMY. 

*  *  *  The  State  is  in  great  need  of  the  survey  in  order  to  draft  for  itself  an 
accurate  and  reliable  map.  The  maps  which  Ave  now  have  may  fairly  be  described 
as  horrible.  The  distances  as  given  on  the  maps  are  often  miles  out  of  the  way. 
Important  lakes  are  mislocated  on  the  maps,  or  given  out  of  shape,  or  left  off  the 
map  entirely.  The  public  does  not  know  the  exact  area  of  Minnesota  within  a  great 
many  square  miles.  The  surveys  have  been  made  by  thousands  of  different  survey- 
ors, some  of  whom  were  competent  and  others  of  whom  were  not,  and  very  few  of 
whom  had  at  hand  the  proper  instruments  for  Y)erfect  work.  As  a  consequence  the 
exact  length  and  width  of  the  State  are  thought  to  be  several  miles  different  from 
the  figures  usually  quoted.  The  shape  of  the  State  is  a  comparatively  indifferent 
quantity.  The  latitude  and  longitude  of  jDlaces  are  ind^nite,  and  no  man  knows 
perfectly  where  in  the  A^ast  geographical  system  his  farm,  his  road,  his  city,  his 
county,  or  his  State  lie.  In  every  European  state  the  Government,  by  its  scientific 
labors  in  geodetic  work,  gives  each  locality  exact  data  and  fixed  landmarks  by 
which  to  place  itself.  In  this  country  our  geography  is  known  largely  by  guess. 
The  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  is  in  the  midst  of  the  same  work  as  that  which 
Europe  has  carried  to  successful  issue. 

The  Eailroad  Gazette,  which  as  you  know  is  a  technical  journal, 
says  on  April  6,  1894 : 

A  llAID   ON   THE   COAST  SURVEY. 

There  is  a  movement  on  foot  in  Washington  Avhich  engineers  should  watch.  We 
say  engineers  especially,  but  all  citizens  who  are  concerned  in  preserving.for  future 
usefulness  one  of  the  old  and  honorable  institutions  of  the  country,  should  watch  it. 
#  Its  object  is  the  destruction  of  the  Coast  Survey.  This  Bureau  has  existed  for  eighty- 
seven  years,  and  its  work  is  famous  among  scientific  men  all  over  the  civilized  world. 
We  do  not  say  that  the  Bureau  has  always  been  conducted  in  an  ideal  way.  It  has 
not  been  free  from  the  evils  of  jealousy  and  sloth  and  expensiveness,  which  appear 
from  time  to  time,  and  in  greater  or  less  degree,  in  all  Government  work  if  it  endures 
long  enough — in  all  human  work,  Ave  might  say — and  which  are  inevitable  in  a 
country  with  such  a  shocking  civil  service  as  ours.     *     *     -^ 

Serious  and  patriotic  engineers  Avould  do  well  to  keep  an  eye  on  this  movement, 
and  if  it  shows  signs  of  becoming  imx)ortant  to  write  to  their  Representatives  and 
Senators  protesting  against  dragging  the  Coast  Survey  into  the  spoilsmen's  net.  It 
is  in  the  interest  of  exact  science  and  of  professional  Avork  the  world  over  that  this 
wanton  attack  upon  a  great  scientific  bureau  should  not  succeed. 

I  might  multii)ly  these  notices  very  considerably,  Mr.  Chairman,  but 
I  wish  to  reduce  tny  tax  upon  your  time  and  patience  as  much  as  pos- 
sible, so  I  Avill  next  refer  to  a  few  opinions  of  the  Survey  that  have 
been  expressed  by  very  eminent  authorities  outside  of  the  United 
States.  I  quote  now  from  Sir  Eoderic  I.  Murchison,  the  celebrated 
English  geodesist: 

All  unprejudiced  persons  must  agree  that  the  trigonometrical  survey  of  the  United 
States  of  America  stands  Avithout  a  superior. 

Capt.  Smytli,  R.  N.,  president  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society  and  Admiral 
Beaufort,  R.  N.,  speak  in  high  terms  of  appreciation  of  Coast  Survey  work  and 
methods.  They  say  that  "  the  progress  and  character  of  the  liydrography  of  Great 
Britain  haA^e  severelj^  suffered  for  the  want  of  cooperation  with  the  ordnance  or  land 
survey,"  a  defect  that  is  obviated  by  the  organization  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey. 

That  is  an  important  point  to  which  I  ask  your  attention.  In  the 
opinion  of  these  most  competent  witnesses,  the  present  system  of  com- 
bining the  hydrographic  with  the  land  work,  which  has  always  existed 
in  our  Survey,  is  far  superior  to  that  which  exists  in  England. 

The  distinguished  president  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society  of 
London,  Clements  R.  Markham,  in  his  annual  address,  published  in 
the  Geographical  Journal  for  December,  1893,  says  that  ^*  the  U.  S. 
Coast  Survey  is  a  monument  of  rigorous  accuracy." 


166      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

Geu.  D.  E.  Sickles,  of  New  York,  said  in  tlie  House  of  Eepresenta- 
tives,  March  17,  1894  (Cong.  Eec,  p.  3681),  that  the  reports  and  maps 
of  the  Coast  Survey  excited  the  admiration  of  the  chief  admiral  of  the 
Eussian  navy  at  the  International  Geograi)bic  Congress  at  Paris,  the 
admiral  affirming  that  the  work  was  an  example  to  the  world,  etc. 

Baron  Humboldt,  addressing  Prof.  Schumacher,  says : 

*  *  *  In  a  region  of  the  globe  Avbere  tlie  direction  of  oceanic  currents,  the  dif- 
ferences of  temi>erature  produced  by  these  currents  and  by  the  upheaval  of  the  bot- 
tom and  the  direction  of  the  magnetic  curves,  offer  so  important  phenomena  to  the 
navigators,  such  a  great  work  could  not  l)e  placed  in  better  hands  than  those  of  Dr. 
Bache.  The  Government  of  the  United  States  has  acquired  a  new  right  to  our  grati- 
tude by  protecting  nobly  that  which  has  arrested  the  attention  of  the  hydrographers 
and  astronomers  of  Europe.  I  should  be  glad  to  think  that  in  a  country  where  I 
am  honored  with  so  lui^h  good  leeling  my  feeble  testimony  might  contribute  to 
enliven  the  interest  which  is  due  to  the  excellent  labors  of  Mr.  Bache. 

Mr.  Enloe.  What  is  the  date  of  that? 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  I  can  not  tell  you  the  date  of  it  now,  but  it  was 
when  Humboldt  was  alive,  so  it  was  some  years  ago. 

Mr.  Money.  Then  it  is  no  post  mortem  communication'? 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  did  not  know  but  what  that  might  have  been  expressed 
at  the  time  it  was  under  the  Kavy. 

Prof.  Mendenhall.  1  can  assure  you  that  that  is  not  the  case. 

Admiral  W.  H.  Smyth,  E.  iST.,  president  of  the  Geological  Society  of 
London  in  1850,  in  speaking,  in-  his  address  of  that  year,  of  the  U.  S. 
Coast  Survey,  says : 

The  Coast  Survey  of  the  United  States  is  a  truly  national  undertaking,  and  has 
been  most  creditably  conducted  through  all  its  various  departments  of  science.  I 
have  studied  the  question  closely,  and  do  not  hesitate  to  pronounce  the  conviction, 
that  though  the  Americans  were  last  in  the  field,  they  have,  j^er  saltmn,  leaped  into 
the  very  front  of  the  rank. 

Were  I  asked  to  give  instances,  I  would  say,  look  to  their  beautiful  maps  and 
charts;  see  their  practice  of  establishing  longitudes  by  electricity,  and  the  probable 
extension  of  its  Avonderful  chronographic  applications;  mark  their  novel  method  of 
taking  and  recording  transits  by  galvanic  circuit;  and  consider  the  excellence  and 
refinement  of  their  astronomical  observations  for  geodetic  purposes,  as  proved  by 
their  being  able  to  detect  the  alteration  of  gravity,  caused  by  a  difference  in  the 
density  of  the  earth's  crust. 

The  president  of  the  same  society,  in  his  address  in  1852,  while  notic- 
ing with  admiration  the  very  efficient  manner  in  w^hich  the  Survey  has 
been  conducted,  and  the  rapidity  with  which  the  work  has  been  carried 
on  along  the  western  shores  of  the  continent,  classes  it  as  ''  one  of  the 
most  perfect  examples  of  applied  science  of  modern  times.'' 

The  Survey  has  received  medals  or  awards  of  distinction  at  several 
international  exi)ositions,  etc.: 

1858 — The  Victoria  gold  medal  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society  of  England. 

1875 — First  premium  at  the  Chilean  Exposition,  Santia*^o. 

1880— Gold  medal  at  the  International  Fishery  Exposition  at  Berlin. 

1881 — Letter  of  distinction  at  the  Internationa]  Geographical  Congress  at  Venice, 

Italy. 
1892 — Exposition  at  Madrid,  medal. 
1893 — Six  or  seven  medals  at  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition  at  Chicago. 

^Finally,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  would  like  to  summarize  very  briefly  by 
saying: 

(1)  The  relation  of  the  two  parts  into  which  it  is  proposed  to  divide 
the  work  are  such  that  it  can  not  be  done  without  certain  loss  of  effi- 
ciency and  an  increase  in  cost. 

(2)  Twice  in  the  histor^^  of  the  Survey  it  has  been  transferred  to  the 
Navy  Department,  and  in  each  case  the  administration  was  found  to 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      167 

produce  unsatisfactory  results  and  it  was  soon  returned  to  civilian  con- 
trol under  the  Treasury  Department. 

(3)  The  proposition  to  i^lace  a  part  of  the  work  under  the  control  of 
the  Geological  Survey  has  always  met  with  opposition  from  the  geolo- 
gists of  the  country,  besides  being  strongly  and  universally  condemned 
by  engineers,  surveyors,  engineering  and  scientific  societies  and  jour- 
nals, and  others  who  are  directly  and  especially  interested  in  that  part 
of  the  work  of  the  Bureau. 

(4)  The  assertions  that  the  work  as  done  under  the  present  system  is 
too  elaborate  and  expensive;  that  money  approi)riated  by  Congress 
could  be  and  was  diverted  from  its  legitimate  channels ;  that  no  account- 
ing of  expenditures  was  made  or  could  be  gotten  at;  that  the  hydro- 
graphic  work  is  now  and  has  been  exclusively  executed  by  naval  offi- 
cers ;  that  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  deprive  these  officers  of  proper 
credit  for  their  services  while  detailed  to  the  Survey;  that  the  cost  of  the 
work  has  been  steadily  increasing  by  quiet  additions  to  the  annual 
appropriations;  and  many  others  of  a  like  character  have  been  com- 
pletely disproved  by  the  evidence  of  official  records  and  the  most  com- 
petent witnesses. 

(5)  The  all  but  universal  testimony  of  those  whose  knowledge  of  the 
work  of  the  Bureau  is  such  as  to  entitle  them  to  an  opinion,  including 
naval  officers  of  distinction  and  experience  in  the  operations  of  the 
Survey,  is  that  the  dismemberment  proposed  by  this  bill  is  extremely 
unwise  and  undesirable. 

(6)  The  highest  authorities  in  Europe  have  bestowed  unstinted  praise 
upon  the  work  of  the  Survey,  and  have  especially  commended  the  com- 
bination of  topographic,  hydrographic,  and  geodetic  surveying  under 
one  administrative  head  as  certain  to  produce  better  results  than  their 
separate  execution. 

(7)  The  present  organization  offers  a  training  and  experience  to  the 
naval  officers  detailed  to  the  service,  the  great  value  of  which  is  testi- 
fied to  by  these  officers  themselves,  and  it  is  greatly  enhanced  by  the 
relations  which  exist  between  them  and  civilian  officers  by  long  experi- 
ence in  work  of  a  high  degree  of  precision.  Under  the  scheme  pro- 
posed in  the  bill  such  relations  and  associations  will  be  impossible. 

(8)  After  a  thorough  investigation  of  this  subject,  extending  through 
two  years,  the  Joint  Commission  of  the  House  and  Senate  reported,  in 
1886,  adversely  to  a  division  of  the  work  of  the  Survey,  such  as  is  now 
proposed,  and  recommended  that  it  be  continued  under  existing  regu- 
lations. And  this  occurred  at  a  time  when  the  Bureau  was  under  the 
cloud  of  an  investigation  by  Department  officials  of  irregularities  in 
administration. 

(9)  It  is  therefore  submitted  that.no  good  reason  has  been  given  and 
no  good  reason  can  be  given  for  the  passage  of  the  bill.  The  existing 
system  is  the  result  of  a  careful  examination  of  the  whole  subject  by  a 
board  of  Army  and  Ii^avy  officers  and  civilians,  the  latter  being  in  the 
minority,  appointed  by  the  President  of  the  United  States  fifty  years 
ago.  It  has  been  in  successful  oijeration  for  many  years.  It  provides 
against  a  total  suspension  of  the  work  in  time  of  war  and  is  advanta- 
geous to  all  parties  concerned.  It  was  imitated  in  many  respects 
in  the  organization  of  the  Light-House  Establishment  under  the 
Treasury  Department.  There  is  not  a  single  reason  for  the  trans- 
fer of  the  work  of  the  Coast  Survey  to  the  Navy  which  will  not  equally 
well  apply  to  that  of  the  Light- House  Board.  Both  are  in  the  interest 
of  the  va  t  commerce  of  the  nation  and  not  of  the  Navy.  As  such  they 
flourish  best  under  civilian  administration,  in  a  nation  which  is  dis- 


168      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

tinctly  iionmilitary.  The  division  i3roposed  in  the  bill  means  the 
destruction  of  a  Bureau  which  throughout  its  existence  has  had  no 
superior  in  all  the  world.  Its  work  has  been  such  that  it  has  every- 
where been  regarded  as  the  most  perfect  illustration  of  the  a])plication 
of  science  to  practical  affairs.  Intelligent  Americans  have  felt  a  just 
pride  in  its  reputation  abroad,  as  well  as  its  usefulness  at  home,  and  it 
is  difficult  to  imagine  that  they  will  approve  its  destruction  unless  other 
reasons  than  any  thus  far  presented  shall  be  forthcoming. 

Now,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  beg  to  thank  the  committee  most  heartily  for 
the  consideration  which  it  has  extended  to  me,  and  I  wish  to  say,  in  con- 
clusion, that  I  have  strictly  avoided  any  reference  to  personalities  in 
the  presentation  of  the  claim  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  in 
opposition  to  the  passage  of  the  bill.  I  have  made  no  reference  what- 
ever to  the  origin  of  this  movement  or  to  any  person  connected  with 
it.  I  have  assumed  the  committee  wished  it  argued  upon  its  merits^ 
and  I  have  therefore  attempted  to  present  the  question  solely  upon  its 
merits  and  for  no  other  reason.  I  would  like  to  say  I  hope  and  believe 
personal  considerations  will  not  enter  into  the  consideration  of  this 
question.  Personal  considerations  should  not  enter  into  the  action  of 
any  deliberative  body  upon  a  great  question  of  this  character,  and  I 
want  to  say  whether  the  ijresent  administration  of  the  Coast  and  Geo- 
detic Survey  is  just  what  it  should  be  or  not  is  not  a  matter,  in  my 
judgment,  which  enters  into  this  question  at  all.  If  the  present  Super- 
intendent of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  is  not  a  proper  man  for 
the  administration  of  the  work. of  that  Bureau,  that  is  a  disease  which 
is  very  easily  removed,  and  I  hope  the  matter  will  have  a  considera- 
tion, as  I  have  tried  to  present  it,  thoroughly  free  from  personalities 
and  simply  and  solely  upon  the  merits  of  the  question. 

Gentlemen,  I  thank  you  very  much. 

The  Chairman.  We  are  very  much  indebted  to  you,  professor. 

Thereupon  the  committee  adjourned  to  meet  on  Friday,  June  8, 1894. 


Committee  on  Naval  Affairs, 

Friday^  June  8,  1894. 
The  Committee  on  Naval  Affairs  this  day  met,  Hon.  Amos  J.  Cum- 
mings  in  the  chair. 

STATEMENT  OF  HON.  B.  A.  ENLOE,  A  REPRESENTATIVE  FROM  THE 
STATE  OF  TENNESSEE. 

The  Chairman.  The  committee  will  please  come  to  order.    The  com- 
mittee will  hear  Mr.  Enloe  on  his  bill  proposing  the  transfer  of  the 
Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey. 
Hon.  B.  A.  Enloe  then  addressed  the  committee.    He  said : 
Mr.  Chairman  and  gentlemen  of  the  committee,  tliis  is  a  discussion 
I  did  not  expect  when  I  introduced  this  bill.     It  has  taken  a  very  wide 
range  and  there  might  have  been  some  doubt,  it  seems  to  me,  in  the 
minds  of  those  who  have  listened  to  the  discussion  as  to  whether  or 
not  it  is  a  discussion  of  the  merits  of  this  bill  or  a  school  in  scientific 
instruction,  somewhat  primary  in  its  character.     Prof.  Woodward,  I 
think,  was  the  first  gentleman  who  appeared  in  opposition  to  the  bill, 
voluntarily  appeared,  of  course,  to  express  his  opinion  to  the  commit- 
tee.   In  making  his  remarks,  aside  from  the  general  character  of  his 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      169 

argument,  he  took  occasion  to  refer  to  me  as  the  author  of  the  bill, 
and  to  criticise  or  question  my  knowledge  of  matters  that  I  had  been 
discussing  in  the  House.  I  tind  in  his  reported  remarks — I  was  not 
present  at  the  time  he  made  them — he  commented  on  this  statement 
which  I  made  in  a  former  Congress  in  reference  to  the  Coast  and  Geo- 
detic Survey  approi)riation,  which  is  as  follows: 

As  it  stands  now  it  is  expended  under  the  direction  of  the  Superintendent  of  the 
Coast  Survey.  He  is  in  charge  of  the  entire  force  and  funds  and  directs  where  the 
work  shall  be  done ;  but  as  the  sum  is  appropriated  in  a  lump  and  no  particular 
direction  given  to  it,  he  can  take  it  and  apply  it  anywhere  in  the  country  to  any 
particular  work  he  desires.  He  could  spend  every  dollar  of  it  in  investigating  the 
formation  of  ice  bars. 

Then  this  distinguished  professor  proceeds  to  explain  to  the  com- 
mittee that  he  at  that  time  was  engaged  in  the  invention  of  an  ice  bar 
for  the  purpose  of  measurements,  and  that  I  had  reference  to  that  in 
making  this  statement  on  the  floor  of  the  House.  I  was  not  then  aware 
of  the  fact  that  there  was  such  a  gentleman  in  the  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey  as  Prof.  Woodward  and  I  did  not  know  of  the  work  in  Avhich 
he  was  engaged.  I  think  as  he  has  brought  the  matter  up,  however, 
it  is  well  enough  for  me  to  state  that  I  made  his  acquaintance  about 
that  time.  He  came  here  as  a  lobbyist  and  interceded  with  me  to  try 
to  dissuade  me  from  pressing  certain  amendments  which  I  had  offered 
to  the  annual  appropriation  bill  in  the  House.  He  took  me  apart  and 
interceded  w^ith  me  in  regard  to  the  amendments.  That  is  the  first 
knowledge  I  had  of  Prof.  Woodward  and  his  connection  with  the  Coast 
Survey,  and  that  is  all  the  knowledge  I  had  of  him  until  he  came  before 
this  committee.  I,  of  course,  declined  to  accede  to  his  request  and  let 
up  in  my  fight  on  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  and  now  he  comes 
here  and  makes  this  imputation  upon  my  knowledge  of  the  subject  I 
was  talking  about. 

Here  is  a  quotation  from  the  annual  report  of  the  Coast  and  Geo- 
detic Survey  of  1887,  showing  that  Assistant  S.  C.  McCorkle  was  sent 
to  the  Delaware  Eiver  and  Bay  for  observing  the  formation  and  move- 
ment of  ice.    It  is  as  follows : 

Under  instructions  dated  in  October,  1888,  Assistant  S.  C.  McCorkle  made  the 
usual  preparations  for  resuming  observations  of  the  formations,  lodgment,  and  move- 
ment of  ice  in  Delaware  River  and  Bay,  and  also  the  temperature  and  density  of  the 
sea  water  at  the  Delaware  breakwater.  • 

I  found  that  was  also  referred  to  in  the  annual  report  of  1889.  Well, 
I  do  not  presume  to  question  the  value  of  this  work ;  I  do  not  know 
whether  it  was  valuable  or  not  to  send  a  man  down  there  to  spend  the 
entire  winter  to  see  exactly  what  time  ice  would  begin  to  form,  and 
what  degree  of  thickness  it  attained,  or  what  effect  the  tide  had  upon 
the  formation,  and  all  of  those  matters.  I  do  not  pretend  to  say  that 
was  a  proper  use  of  public  money,  or  that  it  was  of  value  to  the  Gov- 
ernment to  do  this,  but  that  was  what  I  alluded  to  in  stating  the  Super- 
intendent might,  if  he  saw  proper,  expend  every  dollar  of  the  appro- 
priation in  stationing  gentlemen  over  the  country  to  investigate  the 
formation  of  ice  bars. 

It  is  a  sort  of  confession,  it  seems  to  me,  of  the  weakness  of  a  man's 
case  when  he  comes  before  a  committee  like  this  and  begins  his  argu- 
ment by  misrepresentations  of  the  author  of  the  bill  in  a  foolish  effort 
to  make  something  out  of  nothing.  He  might  have  explained  to  the 
committee,  if  he  wanted  to  deal  in  personalities,  that  my  only  knowl- 
edge of  him  was  that  of  a  lobbyist.  He  is  not  the  only  gentleman  who 
did  work  of  that  kind  since  I  began  my  effort  to  correct  some  of  the 


170      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

abuses  which  I  believe  to  exist  in  the  Coast  Survey.  This  same  g'en tie- 
man  when  he  was  before  the  committee  made  the  statement  that  naval 
oflBcers  would  not  take  off  their  coats  and  work.  Prof.  Meudenhall,  the 
Superintendent  of  the  Coast  Survey,  who  has  been  before  the  committee, 
absolutely  contradicts  that  statement.  I  have  not  brought  anybody 
before  this  committee  to  testify  as  Avitnesses  in  this  matter,  and  nobody 
has  been  here  except  voluntarily 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  You  will  i)ermit  me  to  remark,  Mr.  Enloe,  there 
have  been  no  witnesses  here. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Well,  nobody  has  been  here  to  make  any  statements. 
I  expect  it  is  well  they  were  not  under  oath,  because  in  that  case 
some  of  the  statements  might  not  be  so  strong  in  some  i)articnlars  and 
be  a  little  less  definite  in  others,  but  this  gentleman  voluntarily  comes 
here  and  makes  this  statement  in  regard  to  naval  officers,  that  they 
will  not  take  off  their  coats  and  go  to  work.  I  met  a  naval  officer  at 
the  door  of  this  committee  room  one  morning  when  you  had  a  hearing 
here  and  asked  the  question  whether  that  was  true  or  not,  he  having 
been  in  the  Coast  Survey  work.  He  said  one  of  tlie  things  which 
made  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  unpopular  in  some  sections  of 
the  country  where  it  operated  was  that  the  officers  sent  out  by  the 
Coast  Survey,  the  civilians  who  superintended  this  work,  carried  their 
tents,  set  up  their  household  and  lived  in  magnificent  style  on  the 
shore,  while  the  naval  officers,  the  men  in  the  Navy,  took  off  their 
coats  and  went  out  and  did  the  actual  work  while  these  other  gentle- 
men managed  their  instruments  and  took  observations,  and  he  said 
that  one  he  worked  under  had  a  magnificent  umbrella  about  6  or  8 
feet  in  width  and  that  he  hoisted  the  umbrella  and  sat  under  it  shel- 
tered from  the  sun  and  made  his  observations,  while  he  was  sleeping 
in  a  tent  or  on  a  vessel  and  taking  the  common  fare  that  the  naval 
officers  doing  this  work  had  to  take,  while  this  gentleman  was  living 
in  luxury  in  a  magnificent  great  big  tent,  where  he  had  his  family  and 
furniture  and  everything  fixed  up  in  good  style. 

This  same  gentleman,  Mr.  Woodward,  undertook  to  say  to  the  com- 
mittee very  positively  that  if  you  undertook  to  transfer  these  men  from 
the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  to  the  Navy  Department  they  would 
resign  their  positions,  and  when  he  was  pressed  for  the  reason  why 
this  would  be  so  he  was  greatly  offended  because  some  naval  officer  at 
sometime  or  other  had  referred  to  him  as  '•'•  a  damn  computer."  Well, 
that  was  not  a  very  elegant  expression,  perhaps,  to  apply  to  a  gentle- 
man who  aspired  to  the  title  of  a  scientist,  and  I  would  rather  be  a 
damn  computer  than  a  damn  lobbyist  lobbying  for  my  pay  if  I  had  to  do 
one  or  the  otlier.  I  reckon,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  had  better  leave  that  out 
as  it  is  a  little  bit  too  personal. 

Mr.  Money.  I  would  leave  it  out. 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  would  rather  say  that  to  him  than  the  committee. 
Just  instruct  the  reporter  to  leave  that  out. 

Now,  as  to  whether  these  men  would  be  transferred,  I  do  not  think 
this  gentleman  is  a  competent  witness  or  he  is  authorized  to  sx:)eak  for 
anybody  else  but  himself,  and  he  certainly  would  not  have  stated  that 
when  he  was  in  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey. 

The  Chairman.  I  would  state,  Mr.  Enloe,  I  understood  Prof.  Wood- 
ward came  here  on  behalf  of  Columbia  College. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  I  would  like  to  say,  Mr.  Enloe,  in  speaking  of 
witnesses,  that  no  witnesses  have  been  summoned,  no  side  or  action 
has  been  taken  by  this  committee,  or  anything  of  that  description. 
We  have  not  summoned  anybody,  but  they  have  all  appeared  volun- 
tarily who  have  appeared,  and  we  have  heard  them  as  they  appeared. 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      171 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  am  not  criticising  the  action  of  the  committee  in  liear- 
ing  those  gentlemen.  I  have  no  objectiou  to  tlieir  having  a  hearing. 
I  do  not  think  there  is  anything  in  the  argument  which  has  been 
advanced  against  the  transfer,  and  if  there  is  no  other  reason  assigned 
than  has  been  assigned,  it  seems  hardly  worth  while  going  on  with  the 
discussion.  Now,  tliey  have  assumed  from  the  beginning  and  have 
attempted  to  inculcate  the  idea  over  the  country — they  know  better 
themselves,  the  gentlemen  in  the  Coast  Survey,  but  they  have  attempted 
to  inculcate  the  idea  in  the  public  mind  that  this  is  a  movement  to 
destroy  the  work  of  the  Coast  Survey — that  it  is  a  movement  to  destroy 
the  Bureau  of  this  character  doing  this  work.  Well,  it  is  an  eliort  to 
abolish  the  Bureau  but  not  to  destroy  the  work,  and  1  insist  if  we  pass 
this  bill  that  the  Navy  Department  will  be  better  equipped  to  carry 
forward  this  work,  all  that  ought  to  be  carried  forward,  all  that  is 
essential,  than  under  its  present  organization. 

It  is  a  very  remarkable  spectacle  to  me  when  a  bill  is  introduced  into 
Congress  looking  to  the  betterment  of  the  public  service,  backed  by  the 
recommendation  of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  the  head  of  the 
administration,  backed  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Avho  has  juris- 
diction over  the  Coast  Survey,  backed  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy, 
a  large  part  of  whose  force  is  employed  in  doing  this  work,  and  a  man 
who  has  been  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Naval  Affairs,  and  who 
has  tlioroughly  investigated  this  subject,  I  say  it  is  a  strange  spectacle 
to  see  a  subordinate  under  this  administration  coming  before  this  com- 
mittee and  siDeiiding  seven  days  in  arguing  against  the  policy  of  the 
administration  under  which  he  is  serving.  Sending  out  letters  to  the 
country,  sending  letters  to  the  colleges  of  the  country,  and  protesting 
against  this  measure.  What  do  the  college  professors  know  about  the 
purpose  of  this  measure?  They  are  not  here  on  the  ground.  They  are 
made  to  believe  that  we  intend  to  destroy  the  scientific  work  of  the 
Government  and  destroy  the  work  of  the  Bureau  now  known  as  the 
Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  and  under  that  impression,  created  by  this 
Coast  Survey,  through  its  manipulation,  they  send  letters  here  to  be  read 
to  this  committee  to  make  an  impression  on  the  committee  that  a  great 
wrong  is  about  to  be  perpetrated  against  science  and  the  scientific  work 
of  the  Government. 

Not  only  that,  but  the  newspaper  press  of  the  country  has  been 
enlisted  so  as  to  iiood  this  committee  with  clippings  from  newspapers, 
and  a  large  part  of  the  force  employed  in  that  Bureau,  including  its 
head,  has  been  at  work  since  the  introduction  of  this  bill,  ui)  to  the 
conclusion  of  this  hearing,  in  the  preparation  of  matter  and  in  the  crea- 
tion of  matter  to  be  brought  before  this  committee  to  defeat  the  object 
of  the  administration  under  which  that  Superintendent  holds  his  posi- 
tion. This  is  not  the  proper  j^lace  to  refer  to  that  perhaps,  but  it  seems 
to  me  to  furnish  a  very  strong  argument  in  supj)ort  of  what  I  have 
always  believed  to  be  the  correct  position,  that  is,  every  man  holding 
an  important  position  under  an  administration  ought  to  be  in  sympa- 
thy, politically  and  otherwise,  with  that  administration. 

We  have  had  a  discussion  on  this  subject  by  the  Superintendent  of 
the  Coast  Survey  covering  seven  days.  The  committee  has  heard  it 
with  a  good  deal  of  patience,  and  I  have  listened  to  it  with  x^atience 
and  to  portions  of  it  with  interest,  because  l^of.  Mendenhall  is  a  gen- 
tleman who  comes  nearer  representing  m  words,  if  not  in  thought,  the 
endless  chain  of  perpetual  motion,  for  it  seemed  to  me  there  was  never 
any  conclusion  to  any  part  of  his  argument  so  long  as  you  propounded 
a  question  to  him,  but  a  great  deal  of  his  information  was  very  inter- 


172      .TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

esting  to  tlie  committee  and  I  was  glad  to  have  it;  but  I  got  so  toward 
the  last  I  had  not  the  heart  to  ask  him  a  question,  because  I  was  afraid 
it  would  continue  the  discussion  u.ntil  the  end  of  this  session  of  Con- 
gress, and  I  wanted  a  chance  to  have  action  on  the  bill,  and  therefore  I 
avoided  asking  questions  of  wliich  I  had  made  notes  during  his  dis- 
cussion, with  the  intention  of  propounding  the  questions,  as  the  gen- 
tleman stated  he  would  answer  them  when  he  concluded  his  argument* 

Now,  we  have  heard  some  very  interesting  lectures  before  this  com- 
mittee on  the  subject  of  magnetics.  We  have  heard  a  good  deal  about 
electricity  and  what  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  proposes  to  do  if  it 
is  permitted  to  do  it  in  the  direction  of  producing  2,000  candle-power 
light,  I  think  it  was;  but  Mr.  Woodward  says  tliey  are  not  doing  any 
electric  work  over  there.  I  do  not  know  who  is  right  about  it  or  in 
what  time  this  remarkable  achievement  is  to  be  accomplished  if  we  do 
not  interfere  with  the  present  organization.  We  have  heard  a  good 
deal  about  triangulation  in  its  various  stages,  which  is  all  very  inter- 
esting information.  I  have  studied  these  charts  of  triangulation  of  the 
Coast  Survey.  I  have  marked  with  a  good  deal  of  interest  what  prog- 
ress it  is  making  in  completing  this  transcontinental  arc  which  they 
have  vstarted  out  to  complete  in  the  interest  of  science,  and  I  have  lis- 
tened to  the  explanation  of  Prof.  Mendenhall  that  the  intention  was  to 
extend  this  along  the  line  of  States  and  the  object  was  to  furnish  points 
for  State  surveys. 

That  was  all  very  interesting  to  me  because  I  had  not  been  able  to 
learn  all  of  this  until  I  heard  him  talking  about  it,  but  1  have  not  been 
able  yet  and  this  committee  does  not  now  know  what  the  cost  of  this' 
wonderful  triangulation  over  the  United  States  is  going  to  be.  I  have 
tried  in  every  way  to  find  out  something  about  it,  what  ultimately  is 
to  be  the  cost  of  furnishing  points  to  State  surveys,  for  that  is  all 
there  is  in  this  triangulation  scheme  that  is  of  a  practical  character.  I 
tried  to  find  out  how  many  of  these  States  have  asked  in  the  last  year,  or 
even  in  the  last  two  or  three  years,  for  points  for  State  surveys.  I  got 
the  general  answer  of  probably  ten  or  a  dozen,  but  I  understand  if  you 
bring  it  down  to  accuracy  there  are  not  that  many,  probably  not  more 
than  two  or  three,  that  have  asked  for  points  for  State  surveys.  Then  I 
listened  to  the  argument  in  regard  to  the  variations  of  the  magnetic 
needle  and  the  work  that  was  being  done  to  show  the  variations  of  the 
needle  at  different  points  from  time  to  time  so  as  to  regulate  surveyor's 
instruments  over  the  country,  and  I  thought  probably  we  had  struck 
something  there  Avhich  could  not  be  done  anywhere  else  except  in  the 
Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  that  we  could  not  find  anybody  outside  of 
the  Coast  Survey  who  could  do  it,  and  I  followed  the  argument  of  the 
professor  with  a  great  deal  of  interest  as  long  as  he  was  on  land,  because 
it  seemed  to  be  pretty  well  backed  up,  but  when  he  struck  the  edge  of 
the  water  where  he  could  not  follow  this  line,  that  is,  the  land  survey- 
ors, the  question  arose  then  how  could  he  tell  anything  about  what 
this  line  was  at  any  point  on  the  water  beyond  sight  or  even  beyond 
the  shore? 

Well,  his  argument  was  when  they  reached  the  shore  the  line  would 
make  a  curve,  and  it  was  like  coming  to  a  curve  of  a  railroad  going 
around  a  mountain  or  some  obstruction  so  you  could  not  see  where  it 
ended,  and  the  presumption  would  be  that  it  continued  to  curve.  Well, 
that  seemed  to  me  a  very  remarkable  statement,  that  we  had  men 
smart  enough  in  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  to  project  a  line,  turn- 
ing first  to  one  point  and  then  to  another,  as  it  did  on  shore,  and  when 
it  struck  the  water  it  made  a  continuous  curve,  and  I  asked  him  if  he 


TRANSFER   OF    COAST   AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY.  173 

could  project  a  variable  line  in  that  way.  Then  it  developed  that  it 
was  necessary  for  somebody  on  the  water  to  go  and  make  observations 
beyond  and  establish  points,  and  these  observations  were  made  and 
points  were  established,  and  all  of  this  was  done  by  the  naval  officers, 
and  can  be  done  by  the  naval  officers  just  as  well  as  it  can  be  done  by 
the  men  in  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey.  So  far  as  that  is  concerned, 
I  will  venture  to  say  you  can  pick  out  surveyors  in  the  Geological  Survey 
who  can  go  on  the  shore  and  follow  every  one  of  these  magnetic  lines 
and  determine  its  variations  just  as  well  as  any  man  in  the  Coast  and 
Oeodetic  Survey  can  do  it. 

Next,  I  call  attention  to  his  argument  on  the  subject  of  hydrography. 
He  has  asserted  that  on  account  of  the  peculiar  organization  of  the 
Navy  Department  that  hydrographic  work  could  not  be  accurately 
done,  that  you  must  have  a  civilian  organization,  you  must  have  long- 
continued  service,  you  must  have  the  continuous  thought  and  attention 
of  men  to  make  correct  hydrograx)hy.  Well,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  when  you 
come  to  ascertain  who  has  been  doing  the  hydrographic  work  ever  since 
the  foundation  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  there  has  been  a  much 
larger  percentage  done  by  the  Navy  Department  than  by  civilians  in 
the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  proper.  These  naval  officers  are 
employed  to  make  correct  hydrographic  observations  everywhere  else 
excei^t  when  they  approach  our  own  shores.  That  is  sacred  territory 
that  belongs  to  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  and  I  suppose  their 
instruments  become  inaccurate,  and  useless,  in  fact,  as  soon  as  they 
invade  this  sacred  territory  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey.  You 
will  remember  the  professor  in  discussing  that  talked  about  these 
civilians  who  go  on  the  land  and  made  observations  of  points  on  the 
land,  and  they  had  signals  by  which  at  the  projier  moment  the  lead 
could  be  dropped  and  observations  taken  and  the  point  established. 

Now,  he  never  did  Siiy  to  this  committee  why  a  naval  officer  who  is 
competent  to  handle  the  instrument  could  not  have  taken  the  position 
on  the  shore  and  done  that  just  as  well  as  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Sur- 
vey officer  did,  and  as  a  matter  of  fact,  I  presume  there  is  not  a  mem- 
ber of  this  committee  who  for  a  moment  will  doubt  the  proposition  that 
there  are  plenty  of  officers  in  the  Navy  who  are  capable  of  doing  that 
work  just  as  accurately  as  any  in  the  Coast  and^Geodetic  Survey,  and 
wherever  it  has  been  necessary  to  demonstrate  that  fact  they  have  dem- 
onstrated it. 

We  had  a  learned  disqaisition  from  the  gentleman  on  the  operation 
of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  in  connection  with  topography  and 
the  wonderful  discoveries  we  are  going  to  get  soon  from  the  topograph- 
ical convention  held  here  two  years  ago.  We  have  heard  of  the  won- 
derful work  that  has  been  done  in  geodesy.  At  some  future  time  we 
will  hear  of  the  great  geodetic  convention  which  assembled  here  last 
winter.  Then  we  had  a  learned  disquisition  in  regard  to  the  necessary 
knoAvledge  of  astronomy  which  is  associated  with  this  work,  and  how 
the  telegraph  has  been  brought  into  the  operations  of  the  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey.  We  have  heard  of  the  various  wonderful  achieve- 
ments of  these  gentlemen.  The  point  I  want  to  make  is  that  the  argu- 
ment is  not  sound  that  these  gentlemen  are  alone  able  to  put  these 
agencies  in  operation,  and  that  nobody  outside  of  the  Coast  and  Geo- 
detic Survey  would  be  able  to  do  any  such  Avonderful  things. 

As  a  lecturer  on  hydrography,  physical  hydrography,  astronomy,  mag- 
netics, electricity,  and  everything  pertaining  to  the  applied  sciences,  I 
think  Prof.  Mendenhall  is  one  of  the  most  endless  as  well  as  interest- 
ing lecturers  I  have  ever  heard.    There  seems  to  be  something  of  this 


174  TRANSFER    OF    COAST   AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY. 

kind  going  ou.  This  Coast  Survey  orgauization  has  beeu  iu  existence 
for  many  years,  and  I  am  under  the  impression  that  during  all  this  dis- 
cussion Prof.  Mendenhall  came  here  each  day  to  the  sessions  of  this 
committee  just  as  an  organ-grinder  comes  with  his  instrument  set  to 
new  tunes.  I  think  those  officers  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey 
who  have  been  at  Avork  at  it  for  years  and  have  knowledge  of  every 
detail  of  its  operations  have  been  engaged  ever  since  this  hearing  has 
been  going  on  in  getting  up  this  information  and  cramming  Prof.  Men- 
denhall with  it,  and  he  comes  in  here  and  turns  the  crank  and  the  com- 
mittee gets  the  benelit  of  the  prepared  information.  I  am  satisfied  that 
if  I  had  that  scientific  force  at  my  command  and  I  could  liave  each  one 
of  them  load  me  up  eaeh  day  for  seven  days,  I  could  talk  seven  days 
about  the  operations  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  just  as  intel- 
ligibly as  Prof.  Mendenhall  talks  about  it,  and  any  other  man  with  a 
reasonably  good  memory  and  a  fair  knowledge  of  what  the  Coast  Survey 
is  and  of  the  nature  of  its  work  could  do  the  same  thing. 

I  thought  the  point  the  committee  wanted  to  hear  discussed,  and  the 
point  I  think  there  is  in  this  case,  is,  why  should  not  the  Coast  Survey 
be  transferred  as  proposed  by  this  bill  to  the  Kavy  Department  and  the 
Geological  Survey  ?  Prof.  Mendenhall  addressed  himself  very  briefly 
to  that  part  of  it.  He  falsely  assumed  in  the  beginning  that  this  Avork, 
if  the  transfer  was  made,  would  have  to  be  done  exclusively  by  the 
present  force  of  naval  officers  or  other  naval  officers.  He  ignored  the 
fact  that  this  bill  proposes  the  transfer  of  the  force  now  in  the  Coast 
Survey  or  such  part  as  may  be  necessary,  and  under  the  provisions  of 
this  bill,  if  the  transfer  is  made,  the  scientific  force  will  be  transferred. 
If  the  scientific  force  in  the  Coast  Survey  are  not  willing  to  serve 
under  the  Navy  Department  and  prefer  to  resign,  their  places  can  be 
readily  filled  with  others  who  are  equally  competent  and  would  per- 
form all  of  their  duties  equally  well. 

Mr.  HuLiCK.  Excuse  me  there,  then  you  do  not  propose  by  your 
measure  to  confine  it  solely  to  the  naval  officers  now  in  the  service  ? 

Mr.  Enloe.  Xot  at  all,  sir;  the  bill  does  not  propose  anything  of 
the  kind,  but  that  has  been  the  lone  argument,  the  false  assumj^tion 
upon  which  this  committee  has  been  addressed  for  seven  days.  The 
criticism  has  been  pronounced  upon  the  Geological  Survey  that  it  is  not 
competent  to  do  the  geodetic  work  that  is  being  done  by  the  Coast 
Survey.  Well,  this  bill  proposes  to  transfer  those  gentlemen,  as  many 
as  may  be  necessary,  to  continue  all  of  this  work  that  ought  to  be 
done,  so  that  the  Geological  Survey  will  be  equipped,  if  this  provision 
is  made,  with  exactly  the  same  talent  that  the  Coast  Survey  now 
employs.  Then  why  should  it  remain  as  it  is,  under  the  Treasury 
Department,  instead  of  under  the  Navy  Department?  What  neces- 
sary connection  is  there  between  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  and 
the  Navy  Department?  There  is  no  more  connection  between  the 
Treasury  Department  and  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  than  there 
is  with  the  Interior  Department  or  with  the  Agricultural  Department, 
except  the  Bureau  of  Weights  and  Measures.  If  there  is  any  other 
connection  that  is  logical  and  convincing  to  the  mind  of  any  reasonable 
man,  it  must  be  a  salary  connection.  That  is  the  only  part  of  it  that 
is  any  more  intimately  connected  with  the  Treasury  Department  than 
any  other  Department. 

This  bill  does  not  propose  to  transfer  the  Bureau  of  Weights  and 
Measures,  about  which  ayc  have  heard  so  much.  It  is  not  really  an 
important  Bureau  of  the  Coast  Survey.  That  properly  belongs  to  the 
Treasury  Department,  and  this  bill  proposes  to  leave  it  there,  and  it  can 


TRANSFER  OP  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      l75 

be  as  efficiently  administered  there  as  anywhere.  In  my  opinion  it 
would  be  better  administered  under  the  Treasury  Department  than 
under  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  as  at  present  organized.  Then 
we  come  down  to  the  motive  of  this  fight  against  the  transfer.  Why 
is  it  that  Prof.  Mendenhall  and  Prof.  Woodward  are  making  this  fiijht 
against  the  transfer  to  the  Navy  Department  and  to  the  Geological 
Survey  in  the  Interior  Department?  Why  is  it?  When  you  come  to 
narrow  it  all  down,  it  turns  on  a  matter  of  discipline.  Prof.  Menden- 
hall says  the  discipline  of  the  Navy  Department  is  too  strict  for  scien- 
tifi^c  work  like  this.  What  is  the  meaning  of  that?  The  meaning  of 
the  discipline  of  the  Navy  Department  is  that  men  who  are  employed 
in  the  Navy  Department  are  subject  to  rules,  and  required  to  account 
for  their  conduct,  and  for  the  expenditure  of  every  dollar  of  money 
which  passes  through  their  hands  in  the  very  strictest  manner. 

Prof.  Mendenhall  held  up  before  this  committee  the  difficulty  of  buy- 
ing a  paper  of  tacks  under  the  regulations  governing  the  expenditure 
of  money  in  the  Navy  Department.  I  am  astonished  that  the  gentle- 
man should  have  entered  upon  that  field,  that  he  should  have  made 
that  argument  against  it,  for  if  there  is  any  one  argument  stronger  than 
another  why  this  transfer  should  be  made  it  is  the  fact  that  the  Coast 
Survey,  in  its  organization,  has  been  loose,  that  its  discipline  has  been 
bad,  and  the  result  has  been  scandals  growing  out  of  its  management. 

It  has  been  investigated  twice,  once  under  the  present  administra- 
tion. The  Treasury  officers  have  gone  there  and  investigated  the  man- 
ner of  disbursing  the  funds  and  found  a  defalcation. 

Mr.  Money.  Was  not  that  the  Dockery  Commission? 

Mr.  Enloe.  No,  sir.  The  first  instance  in  which  anything  wrong 
grew  up  in  connection  with  the  financial  administration  of  the  Coast 
and  Geodetic  Survey  that  Ave  have  any  knowledge  of  was  under  Prof. 
Hillgard,  whose  administration  was  investigated  in  1885.  I  have 
referred  to  that  several  times  in  the  House,  and  most  of  the  committee 
are  somewhat  familiar  with  that.  A  great  scandal  grew  up  in  connec- 
tion with  it,  from  the  fact  that  the  men  were  not  held  accountable  for 
their  official  conduct  in  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey.  There  was  a 
man  appointed  to  the  position,  I  believe,  of  observer  of  tides,  at  Mobile, 
from  my  State,  under  that  administration,  and  he  drew  his  salary  and 
lived  in  the  town  where  his  home  was,  and  he  never  once  showed  up  at 
the  station  to  which  he  had  been  assigned.  This  investigation  devel- 
oped that  fact,  and  that  gentleman  went  out  of  office. 

Mr.  Wadsworth.  Did  he  live  in  Tennessee? 

Mr.  Enloe.  Yes,  sir.  That  not  only  occurred  in  one  instance,  but  I 
do  not  know  but  what  it  occurred  frequently  about  that  time.  Men 
w^ere  stationed  here  to  observe  tides  or  sent  there  to  make  surveys,  or 
sent  yonder  on  some  particular  work,  but  they  paid  no  attention  to  the 
work,  they  did  no  work,  they  were  accountable  to  nobody,  and  they 
simply  drew  their  salaries  and  held  sinecures. 

Mr.  Money.  I  can  tell  you  another  case  which  happened  under  the 
Navy  rules.  A  man  was  appointed  to  go  down  to  Florida  and  watch 
the  Live  Oak  reservation,  and  he  never  left  his  home  in  Pennsylvania 
but  drew  his  pay  for  four  or  five  years. 

Mr.  Enloe.  That  was  possibly  the  fault  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy. 

Mr.  Money.  Well,  they  had  a  pretty  loose  administration  here  then,* 
that  is  what  is  the  matter,  I  suppose. 

Mr.  Enloe.  To  go  on  with  this  matter,  Mr.  Thorne  investigated  the 
management  of  the  Coast  Survey  in  1885,  or  rather  Mr.  Chenoweth 


176  TRANSFER    OF    COAST    AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY. 

had  it  done,  but  Mr.  Thome  was  instrumental  in  having  it  done,  and 
did  more  perhaps  towards  developing  the  inside  of  it  than  anybody 
else,  and  the  result  of  it  was  Mr.  Hillgard  was  removed  and  Mr. 
Thorne  was  appointed  Superintendent  of  the  Coast  Survey.  There 
were  many  things  which  occurred  about  that  time  which  it  is  hardly 
necessary  for  me  to  mention  in  detail.  I  have  heard  much  about  how 
matters  were  managed  after  that  occurred.  I  will  not  go  further  into 
that  now,  but  will  say  that  this  Bureau,  as  at  present  organized,  is  not 
responsible,  as  it  should  be,  for  the  use  of  the  funds  placed  under  its 
control.  It  does  not  have  to  render  such  an  account  to  the  Govern- 
ment for  its  expenditures  as  it  ought  to  be  required  to  render.  I  did 
hnd  out  something,  but  very  little,  from  Prof.  Mendenhall,  while  he  was 
before  this  committee,  in  regard  to  that. 

The  Committee  on  Appropriations  has  long  wanted  to  know  some- 
thing about  it.  The  members  of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations  for 
the  last  two  Congresses  who  have  been  talking  to  me  wanted  to  know 
how  the  money  Avas  expended,  to  whom  it  was  paid,  and  how  much 
work  is  done  in  exchange  for  the  payment.  They  give  us  a  statement 
which  shows  so  many  men  paid  so  much  money,  but  where  have  these 
men  been  and  what  have  they  been  doing?  Nobody  outside  of  the 
Bureau  knows  where  they  have  been  at  work,  or  whether  or  not  they 
have  done  any  work  which  is  a  fair  equivalent  for  the  money,  and  it  is 
very  necessary,  in  my  opinion,  that  this  Bureau  should  be  put  under 
some  administration  where  it  will  be  held  to  a  strict  accountability  for 
every  dollar  it  expends.  There  was  a  gentleman  in  the  Coast  Survey, 
and  he  is  there  now,  I  referred  to  it  in  the  House,  who,  though  he  may 
not  have  had  any  corrupt  intentions,  but  indicating  the  loose  system 
of  doing  business,  who  was  found  with  a  Government  chronometer  in 
his  pocket.  He  was  wearing  a  $300  watch  belonging  to  the  Govern- 
ment, and  when  he  came  before  the  Chenoweth  investigating  committee 
and  they  asked  him  about  the  chronometer  he  said  he  had  it  in  his 
pocket.  He  pulled  it  out,  and  showed  that  he  was  using  it  as  private 
property.  The  question  arose  whether  he  was  charged  with  it.  And 
he  might  have  been.  I  do  not  know  whether  he  was  charged  with  it  or 
not,  but  he  had  it.  I  understand  they  were  in  the  habit  of  permitting 
men  in  that  Bureau  to  dispose  of  i^roperty  belonging  to  the  Govern- 
ment without  any  sort  of  restriction  which  would  protect  the  Govern- 
ment against  loss  in  the  disposition  of  the  property.  I  heard  of  one 
instance  where  a  horse  costing  over  $100  was  sold  for  $50.  The  officer 
had  authority  to  sell  the  horse,  and  the  Government,  of  course,  had 
nobody  to  protect  it  except  the  officer,  who  had  to  account  to  nobody 
for  the  discretion  he  exercised.    There  was  no  check  on  him. 

Mr.  Talbott.  How  long  had  the  horse  been  in  use? 

Mr.  Enloe.  For  a  short  time,  I  understand.  I  understand  it  was  a 
very  good  horse. 

Mr.  Talbott.  Maybe  the  Government  got  $50  out  of  him. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Here  is  a  case  in  point  outside  of  that.  The  Treasury  offi- 
cers under  the  former  administration  and  under  the  present  Superintend- 
ent investigated  a  young  man  in  the  disbursing  office  of  the  Coast  Survey 
and  they  found  he  was  a  defaulter  to  the  Government,  and  when  that 
fact  became  known  the  Superintendent  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Sur- 
vay  permitted  him  to  go  without  any  punishment  whatever  on  his 
refunding  the  money.  The  matter  was  simply  hushed  up  and  that 
was  the  end  of  it.  I  went  over  there  and  asked  him  about  that.  When 
a,  man  handles  public  funds  and  is  a  defaulter  he  is  generally  punished. 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  'SURVEY.      177 

Why  not  punish  this  man  ?  He  told  me  that  he  was  a  young  man  and 
said  he  wouhl  not  do  it  any  more. 

Mr.  Money.  When  was  that  done? 

Mr.  Enloe.  Under  the  present  superintendent.  I  have  the  state- 
ment here  which  I  made  in  the  House  soon  after  I  investigated  the 
subject.  Here  is  what  I  said  about  it  on  the  floor  of  the  House  two 
years  ago 

Mr.  Talbott.  Well,  that  would  not  have  much  weight  with  me, 
because  the  Government  got  the  money,  and  I  should  rather  the  fellow 
should  have  a  chance  than  go  to  the  penitentiary. 

Mr.  Money.  Mr.  Spoiford  did  the  same  thing. 

Mr.  Talbott.  As  attorney  for  my  county  I  let  a  fellow  out  against 
whom  there  was  a  clear  case  because 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  do  not  know  what  your  belief  is  in  regard  to  public 
funds.     That  depends  upon 

Mr.  Talbott.  But  I  say  if  the  Government  suffers  no  loss. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Where  a  man  steals  and  returns  the  money  it  is  a  ques- 
tion whether  it  is  a  reason  why  he  should  not  be  put  in  the  penitentiary. 
I  know  a  man  now  who  got  $150,000  as  a  member  of  the  whisky  ring,  and 
he  was  sentenced  to  five  years  in  the  penitentiary,  and  he  thought  he 
could  make  more  money  by  keeping  the  money  than  by  going  free  and 
giving  up  the  money,  so  he  went  to  the  penitentiary  and  stayed  there 
for  three  years  and  came  out  with  his  $150,000. 

Mr.  Money.  He  served  at  a  high  salary? 

Mr.  Enloe.  Yes,  it  paid  liim  better  to  go  to  the  penitentiary. 

Mr.  HuLiCK.  Three  years  of  that  would  be  equivalent  to  the  pay  of 
the  President  of  the  United  States. 

Mr.  Talbott.  Without  the  wear  and  tear. 

Mr.  HuLiCK.  Without  the  wear. 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  think  the  proper  rule  is  to  punish  defaulters. "  Prof. 
Mendenhall  stated  that  if  you  attempted  this  division  the  records  could 
not  be  divided.  There  is  nothing  in  that  suggestion,  for  there  is  no 
trouble  in  the  world  to  separate  the  work.  The  work  can  be  kept  sep- 
arate and  distinct.  You  understand  there  is  one  branch  of  this  work 
that  has  no  relation  whatever  to  the  coast.  The  establishment  of  a 
transcontinental  arc.  That  has  no  necessary  connection  with  the  Coast 
Survey. 

The  Chairman.  That  is  geodetic? 

Mr.  Enloe.  Yes,  sir;  that  could  go  to  the  Geological  Survey,  and 
whatever  is  necessary  could  be  done  just  as  well  there  as  here.  The 
Navy  Department  would  receive  the  part  of  the  records  necessary  to 
carry  on  the  coast  survey.  The  Interior  Department  would  receive 
the  records  relating  to  the  geodetic  work.  I  understand,  although  I 
was  not  here  at  the  time,  that  there  was  quite  a  considerable  demon- 
stration made  in  regard  to  the  polariscope,  as  if  that  had  something  to 
do  with  it. 

Mr.  Geissenhainer.  That  has  to  do  with  weights  and  measures. 

The  Chairman.  I  want  to  suggest  to  my  friend  right  here  the  pro- 
priety of  ascertaining  whether  the  Coast  Survey  had  that  rock  down 
which  the  Columbia  ran  on  in  the  Delaware  River  ? 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  was  going  to  say  in  reference  to  the  polariscope  that 
it  has  more  connection  with  the  Intern al-Ee venue  Bureau  of  the 
Treasury  Department  than  it  has  with  the  Coast  Survey,  and  I  am  not 
proposing  to  interfere  with  that  at  all,  so  it  is  not  necessary  to  answer 
that  argument.  In  regard  to  the  charts,  you  will  remember  when  Prof. 
4561 12 


178      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

Meudeuball  was  discussing  the  accuracy  of  the  cliarts  I  asked  him  if 
the  charts  are  accurate  that  are  now  used,  and  he  said  they  Avere  uot 
absolutely  accurate,  and  that  was  the  object  of  extending  the  arc  along 
the  Atlantic  coast  so  they  might  make  them  absolutely  accurate.  He 
went  on  to  show  what  had  been  done  in  the  matter  of  measurements  of 
the  base  line.  I  showed  in  my  ar^^ument  before  the  House  that  we  arr 
X)aying  very  extravagantly  for  every  inch  of  accuracy  Ave  get  in  the 
measurement  of  the  base  line.  That  was  shown,  and  the  i)rofessoe 
stated  here  that  they  have  devoted  considerable  time  to  correcting 
measurement  ot  the  base  line,  adding  something  to  the  accuracy.  I 
have  no  doubt  that  is  true.  There  has  no  doubt  been  some  little  addi- 
tion to  the  accuracy,  but  for  all  practical  purposes  these  charts  which 
are  now  being  used  are  as  accurate  as  they  will  be  when  that  arc  is  com- 
pleted. The  whole  purpose  of  the  argument  against  this  bill  is  to  keep 
up  the  appropriations  under  j^resent  conditions,  and  to  continue  this 
expenditure  of  money  to  an  indefinite  period  in  the  future. 

I  want  to  call  the  attention  of  the  committee  very  briefly  to  some 
things  which  I  said  on  the  floor  of  the  House.  I  will  quote  here  from 
my  speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  liepresentatives  March  15  and  16, 
1894: 

This  Bureau  was  organized  in  1807,  and  the  scojie  of  its  duties  was  clearly  defined. 
The  purpose  of  the  organization  of  the  Bureau  was  that  it  should  make  surveys  of 
our  coast  line ;  that  it  should  make  charts  or  maps  for  the  use  of  the  Navy,  and  for 
the  use  of  merchantmen  engaged  in  commerce.  From  1807  to  1871  this  work  went 
forward;  and  appropriations  were  regularly  made  by  Congress  for  the.  purpose  of 
carrying  it  on,  and  it  seems  to  have  been  satisfactory  in  its  character.  But  about 
1871  it  had  nearly  completed  the  survey  of  our  coast,  and  it  became  necessary,  in 
order  to  perpetuate  this  Bureau  that  it  should  connect  something  else  with  the  Coast 
Survey.  At  that  time  an  appropriation  of  $15,000  was  asked  for  the  purpose  of  form- 
ing a  'geodetic  connection  between  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  oceans.  This  was  the 
nest  egg  for  millions  of  dollars  of  appropriations  to  follow.  This  was  an  expansion 
of  the  work  to  an  unlimited  extent.  If  the  geodetic  work  outlined  at  this  time  to 
be  carried  forward  by  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  were  completed,  there  is  no 
means  of  arriving  at  an  accurate  estimate  of  what  it  would  ultimately  cost  the 
country. 

We  have  never  been  able  to  get  the  least  ray  of  light  on  that  sub- 
ject, not  an  intimation  even.  Prof.  Woodward  announced  to  the  com- 
mittee that  the  work  would  never  be  completed,  and  that  is  exactly  the 
point  I  make.  Prof.  Mendenhall  is  fighting,  and  Prof.  Woodward  is 
fighting  for  the  extension  of  this  work  indefinitely  in  the  future,  regard 
less  of  its  utility,  in  order  that  they  may  give  emi)loyment  to  scien- 
tific men  who  are  out  of  a  job,  and  run  it  to  suit  themselves. 

I  have  here  a  statement  from  the  ex-Secretary  of  the  Navy,  Mr. 
Chandler,  who  is  an  earnest  advocate  of  this  measure.  He  said  that 
this  work  then,  in  1884,  had  been  seven-eighths  comi)leted.  I  will 
quote  his  language  before  the  joint  commission  reported  in  volume  4, 
Senate  Miscellaneous  Documents,  first  session  Forty-ninth  Congress, 
p.  63,  to  show  that  the  Navy  then,  as  now,  did  most  of  the  Coast  « 
Survey  work.    He  said : 

The  topographical  survey  of  the  coast  proper  having  nearly  arrived  at  comple- 
tion there  is  very  little  left  to  be  done  except  the  continuation  and  revision  of  the 
hydrography.  The  latter  has,  for  several  years  past,  been  intrusted  exclusively  to 
officers  of  the  Navy,  who  also  perform  a  considerable  part  of  the  topographic  work 
on  the  coast.  In  tliese  operations  57  officers  and  275  seamen,  drawing  their  pay  from 
naval  appropriations,  are  now  employed  under  the  Treasury  Department. 

I  also  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  Supt.  Bache  in  1857  said  that  the 
work  would  be  finished  in  fifteen  years  from  that  date  with  the  appro- 
priations at  the  same  rate.    Congress  has  been  going  forward  making 


TRANSFER   OF   COAST   AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY.  179 

appropriations  from  year  to  year  at  the  annual  rate  of  $463,000  up  to 
1885.  From  1857  to  1886,  a  period  of  twenty-nine  years,  there  was 
expeiided  $549,190  per  annum,  an  increase  over  the  annual  appropria- 
tion at  the  time  Supt.  Bache  said  this  work  would  be  completed  in  fif- 
teen years  at  the  same  rate  of  appropriation.  About  $16,000,000  had 
been  expended  up  to  1885-'86,  and  still  the  first  survey  of  our  coast  line 
had  not  been  completed.  It  seems  to  be  no  nearer  completion  to-day 
than  it  was  at  that  time.  If  there  has  been  any  progress,  it  is  so 
infinitesimal  in  its  character  that  you  can  not  discover  it. 

I  find  that  Prof.  Hilgard,  in  the  investigation  which  was  had  in  1885 
by  the  joint  commission,  testified  that  the  survey  of  the  Atlantic  coast 
would  be  completed  in  five  years,  and  the  survey  of  the  Pacific  coast  in 
nine  years.  We  have  advanced  to  the  present  time  without  showing 
any  material  progress  toward  the  completion  of  this  survey  either  on 
the  Atlantic  or  on  the  Pacific  coast.  The  appropriations  since  1886, 
at  the  time  this  testimony  was  given,  amount  to  $4,526,030.21.  So  that 
the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  has  been  engaged  on  this  work  for  a 
period  of  eighty-seven  years,  and  has  spent  nearly  $30,000,000,  yet 
nothing  has  been  completed.  It  has  not  completed  the  survey  of  the 
coast,  and  it  has  not  materially  extended  the  line  which  it  started  in 
1871,  when  it  got  that  ^15,000  to  make  the  geodetic  connection  between 
the  two  oceans. 

I  cite  here  those  authorities  showing  that  there  was  from  the  founda- 
tion of  this  work  a  contemplation  of  its  ultimate  completion,  except  the 
mere  revision  of  hydrography  and  the  correction  of  maps.  This  whole 
argument  on  the  other  side  contemplates  no  such  thing  as  the  com- 
pletion of  the  work  of  the  Coast  Survey,  but  its  indefinite  extension. 

Mr.  Talbott.  I  would  suggest  we  have  some  matters  coming  up  in 
the  House,  and  I  think  Mr.  Enloe  has  also,  and  we  had  better  adjourn 
at  this  i3oint. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Very  well,  but  I  would  like  to  be  heard  a  little  further 
at  some  future  time,  if  the  committee  has  no  objection. 

The  Chairman.  We  will  continue  our  hearing  next  Tuesday. 

Thereupon  the  committee  adjourned  to  meet  on  Tuesday,  June  12, 
1894. 


Committee  on  Naval  Affairs, 

Friday^  June  22,  1894. 
The  Committee  on  Naval  Affairs  this  day  met,  Hon.  Amos.  J.  Cum- 
mings  in  the  chair. 

The  Chairman.  The  committee  w  ill  come  to  order  and  we  will  go  on 
with  the  hearing  in  regard  to  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey.  Mr. 
Enloe  will  please  continue  his  remarks. 

STATEMENT  OF  HON.  B.  A.  ENLOE,  A  REPRESENTATIVE  FROM  THE 
STATE  OF  TENNESSEE. 

Mr.  Enloe  then  addressed  the  committee.  He  said: 
Mr.  Chairman  and  gentlemen  of  the  committee,  at  a  former  meeting 
of  the  committee  I  was  proceeding  to  discuss  the  question  as  to  the 
present  condition  of  the  work  of  surveying  the  coast,  and  the  pur- 
pose of  the  Superintendent  in  his  argument,  and  those  who  have 
aided  him  in  that  argument,  to  indefinitely  continue  the  work  of  the 
Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey.    I  had  quoted  some  authorities  showifig 


180      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

that  originally  the  completion  of  the  work  at  some  time  in  the  future 
was  contemphited.  Various  estimates  have  been  made  as  to  the  time 
within  which  the  original  survey  would  be  completed,  and  that  time 
has  been  extended,  and  at  every  session  of  Oongress  the  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey  comes  up  asking  for  its  annual  appro])riation  with 
perfect  regularity,  and  I  have  not  been  able  to  see  that  it  shows  any 
material  progress  in  the  completion  of  the  work  which  was  originally 
designed.  I  have  here  a  map  of  the  United  States,  a  small  printed 
map,  which  comes  from  the  Navy  Department,  showing  tlie  progress 
which  had  been  made  in  the  work  of  surveying  the  coast.  It  will  be 
observed  that  the  original  survey  of  the  entire  coast  on  the  Atlantic 
and  Gulf  coast  has  been  completed  and  that  the  survey  of  the  Pacific 
coast  has  been  completed  up  to  Cape  Blanco,  that  is,  the  hydrography, 
topography,  and  tri angulation.  Of  course  the  committee  understands, 
and  all  who  have  investigated  this  subject 

The  Chairman.  Where  is  Cape  Blanco  ?  Hold  the  map  up  so  we  can 
see. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Cape  Blanco  is  on  the  map  at  this  point  here  [illustrat- 
ing] you  see.  The  Pacific  coast  is  surveyed  from  the  southern  bound- 
ary, beginning  here  near  San  Diego  [illustrating]  and  running  up  here 
to  Cape  Blanco.  The  blue  lines  show  where  the  hydrography  remains 
to  be  completed,  so  you  will  see  there  is  a  very  small  section  there  which 
is  not  completed. 

The  Chairman.  On  the  California  coast? 

Mr.  Enloe.  Oregon.  And  the  red  lines  show  where  no  triangulation 
has  been  done  nor  topography  begun.  There  has  been  a  small  section 
of  the  coast  which  has  never  been  completed  and  has  been  kept  all  the 
time  in  an  incomplete  state,  and  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  is  not 
willing,  under  its  i)resent  management,  that  this  original  work  shall  be 
completed,  because  that  will  leave  nothing  for  the  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey — no  coast  survey  work  proper  to  be  done  whatever  except  the 
revision  of  the  hydrography.  The  changes  that  will  occur  on  shore  are 
not  of  such  a  material  character  that  there  will  be  much  necessity  for 
topography  in  the  future  where  this  survey  has  been  made;  but  it  will 
always  be  necessary  to  revise  the  hydrography  from  time  to  time  for  the 
purpose  of  making  such  corrections  in  it  as  may  be  rendered  necessary 
by  the  action  of  the  tides  or  obstructions  which  arise  to  navigation 
growing  out  of  the  action  of  the  tides. 

I  want  to  call  attention  to  that  at  this  point,  so  that  the  committee 
will  see  the  force  of  the  point  I  want  to  make  against  the  whole  argu- 
ment on  the  other  side,  and  that  is,  that  the  argument  made  here  is  for 
the  indefinite  perpetuation  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  in  the 
future.  The  intention  is  to  perpetuate  it  as  a  scientific  bureau.  It  is  a 
question  for  Congress  to  determine  whether  or  not  it  is  a  proper  use  to 
make  of  i)ublic  money,  to  appropriate  it  strictly  for  the  promotion  of 
scientific  investigation  that  bears  no  relation  whatever  to  the  proper 
operations  of  the  Government,  or  at  least  only  incidental  relations. 
The  idea  in  establishing  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  in  the  begin- 
ning was  that  it  was  necessary  to  commerce  and  navigation.  The  geo-. 
detic  branch  was  afterwards  added  to  it,  but  it  had  a  very  small 
beginning.     Now,  it  has  very  nearly  absorbed  the  entire  appropriation. 

Mr.  DoLLiVER.  Does  the  pending  bill  provide  for  the  abolition  of  the 
Bureau"? 

Mr.  Enloe.  For  the  abolition  of  this  Bureau  and  the  transfer  of  that 
portion  of  work  which  is  now  practically  done  in  the  Navy  Department 
to  the  Navy  Department,  leaving  the  work  in  the  Interior  to  be  trans- 
ferred to  the  Geological  Survey. 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      181 

I  have  talked  with  the  present  Director  of  the  Geological  Survey  and 
I  have  talked  with  men  who  are  erai^loyed  in  that  work,  and  I  am 
clearly  satisfied,  and  I  think  this  committee  can  satisfy  itself,  that  there 
is  no  truth  in  the  statement  that  the  men  employed  in  this  work  in  the 
Geological  Survey  are  not  fully  as  competent  to  carryforward  the  work 
in  the  Interior  as  the  officers  who  are  employed  in  the  Coast  and  Geo- 
detic Survey;  but,  as  I  stated  the  other  day,  that  question  is  obviated 
by  the  proposition  in  the  bill  to  transfer  this  force,  or  so  much  of  it  as 
may  be  necessary,  to  the  Geological  Survey,  so  that  the  work  would 
be  practically  in  the  hands  of  the  very  same  men  who  are  doing  the 
work  now.  The  Coast  Survey  work,  now  practically  done  by  the  naval 
ofiicers,  would  be  then  done  under  the  direction  of  the  Navy  Depart- 
ment, and  it  would  be  done  with  the  assistance  of  the  very  same  civil- 
ians who  are  doing  the  work  under  the  present  organization,  so  there 
is  nothing  in  the  argument  against  the  abolition  of  the  Bureau  so  far 
as  it  affects  the  character  of  the  work.  But  there  is  this  argument  in 
favor  of  abolishing  the  Bureau  at  the  present  time,  that  it  will  enable 
Congress  to  intelligently  appropriate  money  to  (continue  the  Survey. 
I  have  been  trying  for  years  to  get  some  definite  information  as  to 
whether  the  Government  was  receiving  a  fair  equivalent  in  work  for 
the  money  expended  through  that  Bureau. 

Mr.  DoLLiVER.  What  amount  is  expended? 

Mr.  Enloe.  The  amount  that  is  appropriated — I  have  the  appropri- 
ations here  [examining  paj)ers]. 

Mr.  Glasscock.  Half  a  million  dollars. 

Mr.  Enloe.  The  amount  appropriated  directly  to  it  is  not  so  much 
as  half  a  million.  The  amount  that  was  expended  last  year  under  the 
appropriation  was  $251,895  j  that  was  the  amount  of  it.  But  then 
the  Navy  Department  also  expended  a  part  of  its  appropriation  in 
carrying  on  this  work,  and  I  have  that  statement  here,  and  I  think  it 
is  a  very  good  place  to  refer  to  it  showing  what  part  is  expended  by 
the  Navy  and  what  part  is  expended  under  the  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey  appropriation  proper.  The  total  amount  expended  by  the 
Navy  Department  during  the  last  fiscal  year  for  the  Coast  Survey  was 
$209,048.63.  The  totaramount  expended  by  the  Navy  Department  for 
the  Coast  Survey  work  during  the  fiscal  year  ending  ^ne  30, 1892,  was 
$217,191.85.  The  total  amount  expended  by  the  Navy  Department 
during  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1891,  for  the  Coast  Survey  was 
$257,953.(50.  That  was  expended  by  the  Navy  Department  in  the  act- 
ual surveys  of  the  waters  adjacent  to  the  Coast  of  the  United  States. 
The  amount  expended  by  the  coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  in  an  actual 
survey  of  the  coast  during  the  same  fiscal  year  was  $226,233.99. 

Now  you  will  see  we  make  under  the  present  system  two  definite  appro- 
priations, one  for  the  Navy  Department  and  the  other  for  the  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey,  and  a  part  of  the  naval  appropriation  is  taken  and 
expended  on  this  work  and  it  is  done  under  the  direction  of  the  Coast 
Survey  ofl&cers.  The  result  is,  when  the  Committee  on  Appropriations 
attempts  to  get  any  detailed  information  as  to  the  use  made  of  this 
money,  as  to  the  amount  of  work  accomplished  by  the  expenditure,  it 
is  not  able  to  get  anything  which  will  enable  the  Committee  on  Appro- 
priations to  act  intelligently.  I  went  to  Judge  Holman  when  he  was 
chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations  and  asked  him  to  call 
upon  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  for  a  specific  and  detailed  state- 
ment of  the  expenditure  of  this  money,  showing  where  it  was  expended, 
so  I  could  see  what  the  practical  results  were  from  this  appropriation, 
but  Judge  Holman  did  not  get  any  such  information  about  it,  and  when 


182  TRANSFER    OF    COAST    AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY. 

I  attempted  to  cut  down  the  appropriation  in  the  House,  Judge  Hoi" 
man  finally  side  tracked  me  with  an  amendment,  general  in  its  char- 
acter, directing  the  Superintendent  of  the  Coast  Survey  to  make  a 
recommendation  to  Congress  for  the  reduction  of  this  force.  I  asked 
him  if  he  thought  that  would  be  done.  I  said,  ''  If  we  api^ropriate 
this  money,  do  you  not  think  they  will  expend  every  dollar  of  it,  and 
do  you  believe  there  will  be  any  reduction  in  the  amount  of  the  appro- 
priation or  in  the  force  employed."  Well,  he  said,  '^If  Prof.  Menden- 
hall  is  the  gentleman  I  take  him  to  be  and  that  he  has  been  represented 
to  me,  he  will  make  a  considerable  reduction." 

I  stated  at  the  time  that  I  had  never  known  of  an  appropriation 
made  to  carry  on  public  work  yet  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  public  offi- 
cer where  any  part  of  it  was  returned  into  the  Treasury  under  any  such 
general  clause  as  that,  and  I  was  right  about  it  because  there  was  not 
a  dollar  of  reduction  in  the  expenditure,  and  there  Avas  not  a  reduction 
of  a  single  man  in  the  force  as  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  learn.  Mr. 
Sayers,  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations  at  this  session, 
attempted  to  get  some  detailed  information  about  this  matter  and 
addressed  a  letter  to  the  Superintendent  looking  to  that,  but  when  he 
received  the  reply  it  Avas  so  general  and  so  vague  and  indefinite  in  its 
character  that  he  did  not  know  any  more  about  the  matter  after  he  got 
the  answers  to  the  questions  than  he  did  before  he  asked  them,  and  he 
andtlie  committee  determined  to  blindly  cut  down  the  appropriations, 
and  proceeded  to  do  it  in  the  bill  which  passed  the  House. 

In  a  speech  which  I  delivered  in  the  House  the  15tli  or  IGth  day  of 
March  last,  I  referred  to  the  use  of  this  appropriation  for  the  last  year, 
and  I  said  then : 

Two  hundred  and  fifty-one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  ninety-tive  dollars  was 
the  amount  of  the  appropriation  actually  used  last  year.  Now,  let  us  see  what  was 
done  with  it.  I  find,  on  examination  of  this  communication  of  the  Superintendent 
to  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Api)ropriations,  that  $139,075.40  was  paid  for 
the  maintenance  of  the  office  force  proper.  I  find  that,  in  addition  to  that,  the  sal- 
aries of  the  assistants,  belonging  to  the  field  force  and  carried  in  that  part  of  the 
appropriation  bill,  but  who  are  permanently  employed  in  the  office,  amount  to 
$19,400  a  year.  Then  I  find  that  the  field  force  in  the  office  during  the  three  months, 
the  38  men  specifically  mentioned  by  the  Superintendeni;  in  his  communication  sent 
to  the  chairman,  received  during  that  time  $19,910.62  exclusive  of  the  salaries  of 
those  permanently  assigned  to  office  work. 

Now,  this  '*  period  of  comparative  idleness"  mentioned  by  Mr.  Thorne  extends 
from  November  until  April,  and  in  some  ])ortion8  of  the  country  until  as  late  as  May. 
These  men  during  that  time  are  engaged,  it  is  said,  in  working  up  their  field  notes; 
so  they  are  paid  for  the  six  months  of  winter  $39,821.24.  By  adding  these  sums 
together  you  get  the  amount  expended  in  this  office,  across  the  street,  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  office  force,  and  for  doing  the  work  in  the  office  $198,096.64,  and  you 
get  for  the  Avork  actually  done  in  the  field  $.53,598.36. 

In  other  words,  there  is  $4  in  salaries  paid  in  that  office  for  every  $1 
of  work  that  is  done  in  the  field. 

Now,  there  was  a  question  raised  here  as  to  what  tliese  men  were 
doing  the  six  months  that  they  can  not  work  in  the  field,  and  I  raised 
that  question  in  the  House  and  the  Superintendent  of  the  Survey  at- 
tempted to  answer  it  here  in  his  argument,  and  he  exx)lained  that  two 
years  ago  he  held  a  topographical  convention  here,  which  had  accom- 
plished some  results  of  great  value,  but  we  know  nothing  so  far  of 
what  those  results  are,  but  we  may  sometime  later  learn.  This  winter 
it  was  claimed  that  these  men  were  here  in  Washington,  to  all  appear- 
ances doing  nothing,  and  that  was  the  general  impression  of  those  who 
observed  that  they  apparently  had  nothing  to  do  except  to  frequent  the 
Capitol  when  it  suited  their  convenience,  or  the  hotels,  and  occupy 
themselves  as  gentlemen  of  elegant  leisure.    They  were  not  about  the 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      18S 

office  mucli,  tliey  were  on  the  streets  and  other  places  more  than  the 
office  according  to  the  best  information  I  have  got,  bnt  we  are  told  by 
the  Superintendent  they  were  constituted  a  geodetic  convention,  which 
was  a  convention  not  authorized  by  law,  but  authorized  by  the  Super- 
intendent of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey.  Those  were  of  the  force 
for  whom  we  appropriate  money  to  pay  salaries  to  do  a  specific  work, 
and  here  they  were  pursuing  scientific  investigations  in  a  convention 
accordingto  the  statement  of  the  Superintendent,  and  at  some  future 
time  we  are  to  be  furnislied  with  a  report  of  the  i)roceedings  of  that 
con vention, .  and  learn  of  the  developments  they  have  made  in  the 
interest  of  science  during  that  six  months. 

There  is  another  question  to  which  I  wish  to  call  the  attention  of  the 
committee,  and  that  is  the  statement  made  by  the  Superintendent  in 
reference  to  the  revision  of  the  salary  list  in  the  Fifty-first  Congress. 
When  the  i)resent  Superintendent  came  into  the  office  he  stated  to  the 
committee  that  he  was  unfamiliar  with  the  work  there,  and  did  not 
have  time  to  prepare  the  estimates  or  did  not  prepare  them,  and  they 
were  prepared  by  his  assistants  in  that  office  and  sent  to  the  Committee 
on  Appropriations  with  his  approval,  and  they  asked  for  an  increase 
in  the  appropriation.  Mr.  Cannon,  of  Illinois,  chairman  of  the  com- 
mittee, informed  the  Superintendent  that  he  must  make  a  reduction  in 
his  estimates,  and  the  Superintendent,  when  it  was  sent  back  to  him 
for  revision,  revised  his  estimates  for  the  appropriation,  and  he  stated 
here  to  the  committee  the  other  day  that  he  was  assisted  in  that  matter 
by  the  principal  oflicers  in  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey.  He,  how- 
ever, said  he  assumed  the  entire  responsibility  for  what  was  done. 
I^obody  has  ever  doubted  his  willingness  to  assume  it,  because  as  the 
head  of  the  Bureau  he  could  not  escape  the  responsibility  if  he  wanted 
to  do  so. 

I  criticise  that  action,  the  action  of  the  Superintendent  and  his  assist- 
ants in  revising  the  salary  list  in  the  Fifty -second  Congress,  and  stated 
that  it  was  a  strange  proceeding  for  an  executive  officer,  called  upon 
to  revise  his  estimates,  to  intrust  the  revision  to  a  set  of  gentlemen 
who  were  themselves  interested  in  the  results  to  be  produced,  and  to 
follow  their  recommendation,  when  the  revision  itself  showed  that  the 
men  who  were  concerned  in  it  increased  their  own  x)ay,  while  they  cut 
down  the  pay  of  the  laboring  men  in  the  office.  That  was  the  way  in 
which  the  revision  was  eflfected.  They  increased  the  pay  of  the  men 
who  were  already  receiving  large  salaries,  and  they  decreased  the  pay 
of  the  laboring  force  in  the  office  in  order  to  come  within  the  limita- 
tions placed  upon  them  by  the  Committee  on  Appropriations. 

Mr.  DoLLiVER.  Strictly  in  accordance  with  the  Scriptures? 

Mr.  Enloe.  Gave  it  to  those  who  had  large  salaries  and  took  away 
from  those  who  had  small  ones.  Is  that  the  portion  of  the  Scriptures 
to  which  you  refer? 

Mr.  DoLLiVER.  Yes. 

Mr.  Enloe.  The  effort  to  explain  that  transaction,  which  was  heard 
by  the  committee,  did  not  seem  to  me  to  be  entirely  satisfactory.  One 
result  which  followed  it  was  that  the  plate  ])r inters  resigned  their  posi- 
tions in  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  and  went  to  the  Bureau  of 
Engraving  and  Printing,  where  they  could  get  better  compensation 
from  the  Government  for  their  labor.  The  professor  says  that  that 
was  true,  that  they  did  resign,  but  that  they  attempted  to  return  and 
get  emi)loyment  in  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey.  Now,  I  am  author- 
ized by  the  Plate  Printers'  Union  of  this  city  to  state  that  those  gentle- 


184      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEV. 

men  who  resigned  from  that  Bureau  who  belonged  to  the  plate  printers' 
organization  never  did  attempt  to  go  back  to  the  Coast  Survey ;  not 
one  of  them.  There  was  one  man  employed  as  a  i^late  printer  there 
who  did  not  belong  to  any  organization.  I  do  not  know  whether  he 
was  a  very  efficient  man  or  not.  Perhaps  that  might  have  something 
to  do  with  his  inability  to  make  it  more  i)rofitable  to  him  to  remain  in 
the  Bureau  of  Engraving  and  Printing,  and  therefore  he  would  have 
been  the  one  to  make  an  eftbrt  to  get  back  there,  but  competent  men 
who  left  there,  the  men  who  were  capable  of  doing  this  work  in  the 
highest  style  of  the  art,  who  went  to  the  Bureau  of  Engraving  and  Print- 
ing and  got  employment,  have  not  asked  permission  to  return  to  the 
Coast  Survey.  There  was  only  one  man  who  left  who  tried  to  get  back, 
and,  as  I  stated  before,  he  did  not  even  belong  to  the  plate  printers' 
organization.  I  do  not  say  whether  he  was  an  efficient  or  inefficient 
employe.    That  might  have  been  his  reason  for  wanting  to  return. 

Kow,  the  professor,  in  discussing  this  matter  before  the  committee, 
called  attention  to  another  thing,  and  that  was  the  rate  of  compensa- 
tion. He  submitted  a  statement  here  showing  that  these  high -salaried 
men  were  not  paid  enough,  and  it  was  necessary  to  increase  their  sal- 
aries. That  was  his  argument,  that  this  increase  was  necessary  in 
order  to  compensate  them  sufficiently  for  the  work  they  were  perform- 
ing, and  I  have  prepared  here,  on  the  same  line  his  mind  was  running 
on,  except  I  am  on  the  other  side  of  the  question,  a  comparative 
statement  showing  the  salaries  those  men  received  in  1887  and  the  sal- 
aries received  in  1803,  and  I  want  to  call  the  attention  of  the  committee 
to  the  difference  in  salaries  as  shown  on  this  comparative  statement  taken 
from  the  official  record.  Mr.  Charles  A.  Schott,  in  1887,  received  $3,200, 
and  in  1893  he  received  $4,000.     Mr.  George  Davidson 

Mr.  DoLLiVER.  What  kind  of  work  is  he  doing;  do  you  know? 

Mr.  Enloe.  He_ig_one  of  the^assLstautsJi)^  the_j[iffi^e.  Mr.  George 
Davidson  received  in  1887^1^0,  and  was  receiving  the  same  in  1893; 
there  is  no  change.  Mr.  B.  A.  Colouna,  who  was  receiving  $1,800  in 
1887,  is  now  receiving  $3,600;  Mr.  Colonna  is  a  pretty  smart  man. 

Mr.  McAleer.  He  must  be  a  smart  man  to  get  that  increase. 

Mr.  Enloe.  He  is  a  very  smart  man,  and  I  will  tell  you  why  he  is 
smart.  When  they  attempted  to  make  tlie  transfer  in  1885,  when  it 
was  investigated  with  the  view  of  making  a  transfer,  which  was  agi- 
tated about  that  time,  Mr.  Colonna  was  then  a  very  efficient  witness 
from  the  inside  of  the  Coast  Survey  for  those  who  wanted  this  transfer 
made,  and  wanted  to  change  the  Coast  Survey  methods,  and  his  testi- 
mony, which  is  recorded  in  the  investigation  which  took  place  at  that 
time,  is  very  valuable  testimony  now  against  present  organization  of 
the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  but  Mr.  Colonna  was  too  able  a  man 
and  knew  too  much  to  be  kept  in  any  subordinate  position  in  that  office. 
He  has  been,  not  silenced  exactly,  but  converted  to  the  other  side  by  a 
very  simple  process. 

Mr.  Tyler.  Is  not  he  a  very  efficient  officer? 

Mr.  Enloe.  There  is  no  doubt  about  the  fact  he  is  a  smart  man,  and 
I  have  no  doubt  he  is  an  efficient  officer,  but  Mr.  Colonna  was  then 
receiving  $1,800  and  he  is  now  receiving  $3,600,  and  now  he  is  a  very 
strenuous  advocate  of  the  present  management  of  the  Coast  and  Geo- 
detic Survey,  and  naturally  he  would  be.  I  have  not  seen  many  men 
who  would  throw  away  bread  which  is  already  buttered  in  order  to 
take  the  chances  of  picking  up  crumbs  elsewhere.  Augustus  F.  Kogers 
in  1887  was  getting  $2,800  and  he  is  now  receiving  $3,200.     George  A. 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 


185 


Fairfield  was  in  1887  receiving  $2,400  and  he  is  now  receiving  $3,000 
and  so  on  through  the  list  it  is  the  same.    I  will  not  take  up  the  time 
of  the  committee  to  go  through  the  entire  list  as  it  is  of  considerable 
length,  and  I  will  put  it  in  the  record. 


€ha8.  A.  Schott 

Geo.  Davidson 

B.  A.  Colonna 

Aug.  F.  Rodders 

Geo.  A.  Fairfield 

A.  T.  Mosman 

Wm.  H.  Dennis 

Jno.  W.  Donn 

Wm.  Eimbeck 

Ed.  < j-oodfollow 

Cleveland  Rockwell 
Henry  S.  Whiting.. 
Herbert  G.  Ogden 

Otto  H.Tipman 

J.J.  Gilbert 

H.  L.Manndin 

Andrew  Braid 

F.  W.  Perkins 

F.  D.  Granger 


1887. 

1 
1893.    i 

$3, 200 

i 
.$4,000 

4,000 

4,000 

1,800 

3,600    ! 

2,800 

3,200    1 

2,400 

3,000  i| 

2,400 

3,000  1 

2,300 

3,000  i| 

2,  200 

2.800  li 

2,200 

2,600  j! 

2,200 

2,400  'i 

2,300 

2,600  !| 

2, 100 

2,400  1 

2,000 

2,400  1| 

2,000 

2,400  i 

1,800 

2,400  1 

1,800 

2,  200  1 

1,800 

2,200    1 

1,800 

2,000  1 

1,800 

2,000 

! 

1887. 


Ed.  Smith $1, 800 

J.  F.  Tratt 1,  500 

C.  H.  Sinclair 1.  500 

E.  F.  Dickius 1,  500 

D.  B.  Wainwright 1.  500 

W.  C.  Hodgkins 1, 400 

!  E.D.Preston 1,100 

J.  D.  Bailer .\ . .  1, 400 

J.E.McGrath 900 

C.  T.  lardella 1, 400 

W.  I.  Vinal 1, 400 


C.H.VanOrden. 
Isaac  Winston.. 
P.A.  Welker.-.. 
Fremont  Mo.ss  . . 

J.  A.Flemer 

Jno.  Xelon 


1,400 
1,100 
900 
900 
825 
825 


R.  M.  Bache 2, 153 


$2, 000 
2,000 
2,000 
1,800 
1,800 
1,800 
1,800 
1,600 
1,800 
1,600 
1,600 
1,600 
1,600 
1,400 
1,400 
1,400 
1,200 
2,200 


J,  103  I     82,800 


Before  1  get  away  from  this  subject,  which  is  all  incidental  to  the 
revision  of  salaries  and  resignation  of  these  plate  printers,  I  do  not 
want  to  fail  to  call  attention  again  to  the  plate  printers  of  this  city  in 
their  organized  capacity.  Without  having  any  idea  in  my  mind  at  the 
time  that  it  woukl  attract  the  attention  of  that  body,  I  took  up  this 
matter  as  one  of  simple  justice,  and  I  espoused  the  cause  of  those  men 
in  the  Geodetic  Survey  who  had  been  treated,  as  I  thought,  in  a  shame- 
ful manner,  and  I  tried  to  have  it  corrected  in  the  House  when  the 
appropriation  came  up.  I  proposed  to  cut  down  the  salaries  of  those 
gentlemen  who  had  received  the  increase  and  put  them  back  where 
they  were,  and  to  put  up  the  salaries  of  the  laboring  men  to  the  point 
from  which  they  were  reduced.  In  making  tliat  fight,  I  did  not  know 
that  the  plate-printers  would  take  any  interest  in  it,  but  they  did,  and 
at  a  meeting  here  in  this  city  they  adopted  resolutions  which  I  do  not 
introduce  here  for  any  other  purpose  than  to  contradict  tlie  statement 
of  Prof.  Mendenliall  here  that  he  had  never  met  with  any  protest  from 
the  laboring  men  on  account  of  the  manner  in  which  the  laboring  force 
was  treated  in  that  office.  I  understood  him  to  make  that  sort  of  a 
statement  here.  Here  is  a  communication  from  the  Plate  Printers' 
Union,  which  was  handed  me  some  time  ago. 


Washington,  D.  C,  April  2S,  1S94. 


Hon.  B.  A.  ExLOK ; 


Dear  Sir  :  At  a  regular  stated  meeting  of  the  Plate  Printers'  Protective  Union,  5041, 
American  Federation  of  Labor,  working  under  the  auspices  of  the  National  Printers' 
Union  of  America,  held  on  the  above  date,  the  following  resolutions  were  unani- 
mously adopted : 

Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  this  union  are  hereby  extended  to  the  Hon.  B.  A. 
Enloe,  of  Tennes.see,  for  the  able  manner  in  which  he  defended  the  workingman's 
cause  in  a  speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Eepresentatives  in  May,  1892,  and  again 
on  the  16th  day  of  March,  1894,  when  he  exposed  the  outrages  perpetrated  by  the 
Coast  Survey  officials  on  the  workingnien  employed  in  that  Bureau  by  having  their 
salaries  reduced  in  1890  so  that  the  officials  might  have  theirs   increased :  Therefore, 


186      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

Be  it  further  resolved,  That  we,  the  Phite  Printers'  Protective  Union  recommend 
the  Hon.  B.  A.  Enloe,  of  Tennessee,  to  the  workingmen  of  the  country  and  the  State 
of  Tennessee  for  their  kind  consideration  and  support. 

Given  under  our  hand  and  seal  of  this  union  this  28th  day  of  April,  1894. 
[L.  s.]  Eugene  Bkttp^s,  President. 

John  Wood,  Secretanj. 
Isaac  Girrodette, 
Wm.  Johnson, 
John  T.  Connors, 
Arthur  Small, 
E.  W.  McRae, 

Commiiiee. 

Mr.  DoLLiVER.  That  is  a  very  persuasive  document. 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  sliould  tliink  so,  but  I  read  that  not  for  campaign  pur- 
poses, but  simply  for  the  purpose  of  showing  to  this  committee  how  the 
laboring  men  feel  in  regard  to  this  matter  and  how  these  men  on  the 
working  force  in  the  office  felt  about  the  reduction  which  was  made  in 
their  pay  in  order  that  the  salaries  of  the  high  officials,  the  better-paid 
officials,  might  be  increased. 

Now,  I  do  not  care  to  continue  this  argument  at  great  length  here, 
because  I  deem  it  entirely  useless.  The  committee  has  had  a  very 
elaborate  hearing  on  the  other  side  of  the  question,  and  has  heard  Mr. 
Glasscock,  who  made  a  very  strong  i)resentation  of  the  side  of  the  ques- 
tion which  I  represent,  and  I  do  not  think  it  is  necessary  to  continue 
this  at  great  length. 

Mr.  DoLLiVER.  Before  you  leave  the  question  of  expenses,  have  you 
made  an  estimate  of  the  actual  saving  which  will  be  effected  by  the 
transfer  of  the  Coast  Survey  to  the  Navy  Department  and  by  the  trans- 
fer of  the  geodetic  features  of  this  enterprise  to  the  Interior  Depart- 
ment? 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  have  not  been  able  to  get  any  data  which  would  ena- 
ble me  to  get  anything  like  an  accurate  estimate.  The  abolition  of  this 
Bureau  here  as  a  separate  and  distinct  bureau  in  the  Treasury  Depart- 
ment would  result  in  a  considerable  saving  of  expenses,  because  it 
would  be  merged  into  bureaus  already  organized.  In  the  Navy  Depart- 
ment it  would  go  to  the  Hydrographic  Office.  In  thft  Geological  Sur- 
vey it  would  go  under  the  Director  of  the  Geological  Survey. 

Mr.  DOLLIVER.  The  executive  expenses  would  be  decreased! 

Mr.  Enloe.  The  expense  of  administration  would  be  decreased  to 
that  extent,  which  is  one  saving  which  is  perfectly  manifest  on  the  face 
of  it.  Then,  I  take  it,  there  would  be  less  circumlocution  and  more 
direct  methods,  which  would  result  in  a  saving.  I  think,  too,  there 
would  be  a  saving  in  this  respect,  that  the  regulations  of  the  Navy 
Department  in  regard  to  the  use  of  money,  its  expenditure,  use,  and 
methods  of  keeping  account,  and  the  strictness  with  which  it  is  done 
would  result  in  a  considerable  saving  also,  and  if  it  should  not  save  in 
the  appropriation  I  think  it  would  result  in  an  increase  of  the  work 
done  for  the  money. 

Mr.  DOLLIVER.  You  do  not  dispute  the  value  of  the  work  in  survey- 
ing the  coast  or  adjacent  land! 

Mr.  Enloe.  No,  but  I  do  dispute  the  value  of  a  portion  of  the  work. 
I  think  that  the  present  organization  is  doing  work  that  ought  not  to 
be  done  by  the  Government. 

Mr.  DoLLiVER.  For  instance! 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  have  got  a  lot  of  maps  which  were  furnished  me  by  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  in  my  committee  room,  the  Committee  on 
Education,  which  I  had  before  the  House  at  the  time  I  addressed  the 
House  when  the  sundry  civil  bill  was  under  consideration,  and  from 


TRANSFER    OF    COAST    AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY.  187 

an  examination  of  those  maps  it  is  perfectly  evident,  and  it  must  be  to 
any  unprejudiced  mind,  that  there  is  a  great  deal  of  work  done  that  is 
not  of  any  practical  value  to  the  Government  for  commercial  purposes 
and  never  could  be  of  any  value  except  in  case  of  a  war.  If  we  became 
involved  in  a  war  and  it  became  necessary  to  know  everything  of 
detail  about  the  section  of  the  country  along  the  Atlantic  coast  where 
the  principal  part  of  this  work  has  been  done,  then  these  maps  would 
become  valuable  for  military  maps. 

Mr.  DoLLiVER.  Which  is  quite  an  important  matter? 

Mr.  Enl(  )E.  That  is  quite  an  important  matter,  if  we  expect  to  become 
involved  in  a  war  and  furnish  definite  and  detailed  information  to  any 
enemy  which  might  invade  the  country.  In  other  words,  to  lay  the 
whole  face  of  the  country  before  them.  Now,  in  making  the  cadastral 
maps,  the  work  they  are  doing,  it  is  done  with  such  nicety  of  detail 
that  it  furnishes  a  complete  view  of  the  country  covered.  It  is  termed 
a  cadastral  map  or  detailed  map,  and  it  is  used  for  military  purposes  in 
Europe.  Kow,  these  people  in  Europe  are  frequently  engaged  in  wars 
with  each  other,  and  I  suppose  that  they  find  it  valuable  for  military 
purposes  to  have  those  accurate  maps. 

Mr.  DoLLiVER.  Are  their  maps  published? 

Mr.  Enloe.  Well,  I  should  hardly  think  it  would  be  wise  for  France 
to  have  a  cadastral  map  of  Germany  or  Germany  to  have  a  cadastral 
map  of  France,  and  i  believe  they  could  not  get  such  a  map  unless  they 
got  it  surreptitiously. 

Mr.  Money.  Every  German  soldier  who  was  killed  in  France  had  a 
complete  map  of  the  country  in  his  possession,  that  was  one  of  the 
instances  of  the  Franco-Prussian  war. 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  have  no  doubt  that  that  is  one  of  the  results  of  making 
•  these  military  maps  for  any  government. 

Mr.  DoLLiVER.  Of  course  it  is  disastrous  for  us  to  have  the  enemy 
know  in  regard  to  the  coast,  but  it  is  still  more  disastrous  for  us  not 
to  know  it  ourselves. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Yes,  but  I  should  think  we  would  be  likely  to  know  more 
than  the  enemy  about  our  own  country. 

Mr.  DoLLiVER.  Now,  do  we  understand  you  to  dispute  the  ability 
and  general  scientific  efficiency  of  these  people  who  are  in  charge  of 
this  business  now  ? 

Mr.  Enloe.  No,  sir;  I  am  not  disputing  that,  but  they  do  not  do  all 
the  coast  work.  Now,  I  was  going  on  to  say  in  reference  to  the  other 
branch  of  the  work,  the  geodetic  work,  as  far  as  this  transcontinental 
arc  is  concerned,  which  is  a  basis  for  surveys  in  the  interior,  that  work 
can  be  completed  by  the  Geological  Survey  just  as  well  as  under  the 
present  organization,  but  I  do  not  believe  that  it  ought  to  extended,  as 
projected,  to  cover  the  entire  United  States.  I  think  if  that  was  done 
it  would  involve  an  expenditure  of  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars 
without  any  corresponding  benefit.  The  only  argument  that  is  made, 
and  the  only  one  made  by  Supt.  Mendenhall  in  favor  of  it,  was  that  it 
would  furnish  points  for  State  surveys,  and  wiien  I  asked  him  how 
many  States  had  applied  for  these  -points  he  gave  a  very  indefinite 
statement,  and  I  have  not  yet  been  able  to  learn  how  many  States  have 
actually  applied  for  these  points  for  State  surveys. 

I  have  here  letters  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  and  tlie  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury,  bearing  upon  this  subject,  showing  what  their  views 
are  as  to  the  desirability  of  this  transfer. 
Mr.  DoLLiVER.  Do  they  both  concur  with  you! 

Mr.  Enloe.  They  both  concur  with  me,  and  as  I  understand  from 


188      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

the  expressions  of  the  President  in  his  letter  to  Congress  in  1885,  in 
discussing  this  question,  he  also  believes  in  the  wisdom  of  this  trans- 
fer. Unquestionably  these  two  secretaries  do.  I  have  letters  here 
which  I  used  in  my  speech  in  the  House,  but  there  is  a  still  more 
•elaborate  letter  here  from  Assistant  Secretary  McAdoo,  of  the  Navy 
Department,  which  I  will  also  insert. 

Navy  Department,  Waslmujio)),  March  14, 1894. 

Sir  :  In  reply  to  your  letter  of  the  12tli,  inclosing  an  amendment  which  you  pro- 
pose to  offer  to  abolish  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  and  to  provide  for  the  trans- 
fer of  the  Coast  Survey  to  the  Navy  Department,  I  have  had  a  conference  with  the 
honorable  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  the  amendment  as  he  will  send  it  to 
you,  which  is  substantially  that  proposed,  is  approved  by  Secretary  Carlisle  and 
myself. 

In  my  opinion  the  work  of  the  Coast  Survey  now  remaining  to  be  done,  so  far  as 
it  appertains  to  the  Coast  Survey  proper,  can  lie  accomplished  by  the  Navy  Depart- 
ment quite  as  thoroughly  and  very  much  more  economically  than  it  is  now  being 
■done  by  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey. 

The  Hydrographic  Office  of  the  Navy  Department  is  now  making  and  engraving 
maps  similar  to  those  being  made  by  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survej^,  the  difference 
being  that  the  Hydrographic  Office  is  not  permitted  by  law  to  make  maps  of  the 
ooast  of  the  United  States ;  its  charts  are  of  other  portions  of  the  seas,  of  which  it 
publishes  about  900,  while  the  Coast  Survey  publishes  only  about  300  charts  of  the 
coasts  of  the  United  States. 

This  Hydrographic  Office  is  well  organized  and  does  the  Avork  thoroughly  and 
efficiently.  About  ten  years  since  a  joint  commission,  composed  of  three  members  of 
the  House  of  Representatives  and  three  Senators,  made  a  very  thorough  investigation 
of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  the  Hydrographic  Office,  the  Geological  Survey, 
^nd  the  Signal  Service,  and  while  there  was  a  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  manner 
in  which  each  of  these  bureaus  was  performing  the  work  allotted  to  it,  the  com- 
mission unanimously  commended  the  method  of  the  Hydrographic  Office  of  the  Navy 
Department. 

An  addition  of  one  or  more  naval  officers,  already  in  the  pay  of  the  Government, 
by  detail  to  the  Hydrographic  Office,  would  enable  it  to  effectively  supervise  all  the 
Coast  Survey  work  now  being  done  by  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey.  Naval 
officers  have  heretofore  done  practically  all  the  hydrographic  work,  the  soundings, 
etc.,  for  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey.  The  topography  and  triangulation  of  the 
shore,  so  far  as  it  is  necessary  for  the  charts  made  by  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Sur- 
vey, have  most  of  it  been  completed. 

This  organization  has  been  in  existence  for  more  than  seventy  years  past,  and  it 
has  triangulated  and  mapped  all  the  coasts  of  the  United  States  except  small  por- 
tions of  F'lorida,  on  the  GuJf,  and  in  Lower  California.  Naval  officers  are  fully  com- 
petent to  do  such  triangulation  as  is  needed  to  complete  this  work,  just  as  the  Army 
•officers  lia  ve  doue  the  triangulation  along  the  shores  of  our  lakes.  The  charts  made 
by  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  are  primarily  for  the  benefit  of  the  mariner,  and 
it  would  seem  that  naval  officers  ought  to  know  quite  as  well  as  civilians  the 
requisites  of  a  good  chart  for  the  guidance  of  mariners.  The  work  to  be  done  in 
the  future  is,  therefore,  to  be  largely  hydrographic,  and  this  must  be  done  by  the 
Navy  Department 

If  this  work  were  all  intrusted  to  the  Navy  Department,  which  is  now  forbidden 
by  law  to  do  hydrographic  work  along  our  own  shores,  men-of-war,  when  not  needed 
elsewhere,  could  make  the  needed  soundings,  and  thus  our  sailing  charts  could  be 
rapidly  improved.  This  would  greatly  benefit  our  commerce.  Naval  officers  now 
make  sailing  directions  not  only  of  foreign  waters,  but  they^  make  all  the  sailing 
directions  on  charts  published  by  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey. 

But  few  changes  take  place  in  the  contour  of  the  shores.  Such  changes  there  as 
time  effects  can  be  noted  readily  and  at  little  expense.  If  the  small  amount  of  tri- 
angulation necessary  to  complete  the  mapping  of  the  shores  of  the  United  States, 
heretofore  alluded  to,  were  completed,  there  would  be,  excluding  from  consideration 
Alaska  and  its  coast,  practically  no  field  work  along  our  coasts  remaining  to  be 
•done. 

It  will  always  be  necessary  to  take  soundings  over  and  over  again  by  reason  of 
the  changes  in  the  bottoms  of  the  ocean  and  of  the  streams  caused  by  tides  and  cur- 
rents. As  this  work  is  now  being  done  by  the  Navy,  though  often  credited  to  the 
Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  it  would  seem  that  the  mapping  and  the  charting  our 
own  coasts  might  very  well  be  left  to  the  Hydrographic  Office. 

The  passage  of  your  amendment,  and  the  transfer  you  propose  would,  in  my  opinion, 
result  in  a  large  saving  of  money  to  the  Government. 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      18^ 

I  also  suggest  that,  as  the  work  and  responsibility  of  the  Hydrographic  Office  will 
be  largely  increased  if  the  transfer  be  made,  the  amendment  to  be  forwarded  by  the 
honorable  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  have  added  to  it  the  following:  ''The  Chief  of 
the  Hydrographic  Office  shall  be  an  officer  not  below  the  grade  of  commander,  and 
he  shall  be  entitled  to  the  highest  pay  of  his  grade," 
Very  respectfully, 

H.  A.  Herbekt, 
Secretary  of  the  Xavy, 
Hon.  B.  A.  Enloe, 

House  of  Representatives,  City. 


Treasury  Department, 

Office  of  the  Secretary, 
Washington,  D.  C,  March  IS,  1894. 
Sir:  I  have  examined,  as  carefully  as  the  limited  time  would  permit,  the  amend- 
ment transmitted  by  you  abolishing  the  Bureau  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey, 
and  transferring  its  work  to  the  Department  of  the  Navy  and  the  Department  of  the 
Interior,  and  herewith  inclose  you  a  revised  form  of  amendment,  which  I  think  will 
accomplish  the  purpose  you  have  in  view  and  obviate  certain  objections  which  might 
properly  be  made  to  some  of  the  provisions  contained  in  the  original. 

In  my  opinion,  the  measure  proposed  will  result  in  a  very  considerable  reductiou 
in  the  expenditures,  prevent  duplications  of  work,  and  secure  a  service  fully  as  effi- 
cient in  all  respects  as  that  now  existing. 
Very  respectfully, 

J.  G.  Carlisle, 

Secretary. 
Hon.  B.  A.  Enloe, 

House  of  Eepresentatives. 

I  wish  now  to  read  the  views  of  the  President  of  the  United  States 
on  this  subject : 

The  work  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  was,  during  the  last  fiscal  year,  car- 
ried on  within  the  boundaries  and  off  the  coasts  of  thirtj'-two  States,  two  Territories, 
and  the  District  of  Columbia.  In  July  last  certain  irregularities  were  found  to 
exist  in  the  management  of  this  Bureau,  which  led  to  a  prompt  investigation  of  its 
methods.  The  abuses  which  were  brought  to  light  by  this  examination  and  the 
reckless  disregard  of  duty  and  the  interests  of  the  Government,  developed  on  the 
part  of  some  of  those  connected  with  the  service,  made  a  change  of  superintendency 
and  a  few  of  its  other  officers  necessary.  Since  the  Bureau  has  been  in  new  hands 
an  introduction  of  economies  and  the  application  of  business  methods  have  pro- 
duced an  important  saving  to  the  Government  and  a  promise  of  more  useful  results. 

This  service  has  never  been  regulated  by  anything  but  the  most  indefinite  legal 
enactments  and  the  most  unsatisfactory  rules.  It  was  many  years  ago  sanctioned 
apparently  for  a  purpose  regarded  as  temporary  and  related  to  a  survey  of  our  coast . 
Having  gained  a  place  in  the  appropriations  made  by  Congress,  it  has  gradually 
taken  to  itself  powers  and  objects  not  contemplated  in  its  creation,  and  extended 
its  operations  until  it  sadly  needs  legislative  attention. 

So  far  as  a  further  survey  of  our  coast  is  concerned,  there  seems  to  be  a  propriety  in 
transferring  that  work  to  the  Navy  Department.  The  other  duties  now  in  charge  of 
this  establishment,  if  they  can  not  be  profitably  attached  to  some  existing  department 
or  other  bureau,  should  be  prosecuted  under  a  law  exactly  defining  their  scope  and 
purpose,  and  with  a  careful  discrimination  between  the  scientific  inquiries  which 
may  properly  be  assirmed  by  the  Government  and  those  which  should  be  undertaken 
by  State  authority  or  by  individual  enterprise. — President's  message,  first  session 
Forty-ninth  Congress. 

Treasury  Department, 
Office  of  the  Secretary, 
Washington,  D.  C,  May  8,  1894. 

Sir:  In  response  to  a  communication  received  from  the  clerk  of  your  committee, 
transmitting  a  copy  of  a  bill  ^'  To  abolish  the  Bureau  in  the  Treasury  Department 
known  as  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  and  transfer  the  work  of  said  Bureau  to 
the  Hydrographic  Office  in  the  Navy  Department  and  the  Geological  Survey  in  the 
Department  of  the  Interior,"  I  have  the  honor  to  say  that  in  a  communication 
addressed  by  me  to  the  Hon.  B.  A.  Enloe  on  March  13,  1894,  a  copy  of  which  is  here- 
with transmitted,  the  opinion  was  expressed  that  the  Bureau  referred  to  could  be 
advantageously  abolished  and  the  services  now  performed  by  it  could  be  as  well 


190      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

done  in  the  Department  of  the  Navy  and  the  Department  of  the  Interior,  and  I  adhere 
to  that  opinion. 

That  the  work  performed  by  the  Survey,  or  at  least  the  greater  part  of  it,  is  of 
great  value  to  the  Government,  is  not  questioned,  but  I  am  unable  to  see  the  neces- 
sity for  the  maintenance  of  a  separate  and  distinct  bureau  to  carry  it  on,  when  it 
can  be  done  as  efficiently  and  more  economically  by  the  Hydrographic  Office  in  the 
Department  of  the  Navy,  and  the  Geological  Survey  in'  the  Department  of  the 
Interior. 

Very  respectfully, 

J.  G.  Carlisle, 

Secretary. 
Hon.  Amos  J.  Cummings, 
House  of  liepresentatives. 


Tkeasury  Department, 

Office  of  the  Secretary, 
Washington,  D.  C,  March  13,  1894. 
Sir  :  I  have  examined,  as  carefully  as  the  limited  time  would  permit,  the  amend- 
ment transmitted  by  you  abolishing  the  Bureau  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey; 
and  transferring  its  work  to  the  Department  of  the  Navy  and  the  Department  of  the 
Interior,  and  herewith  inclose  you  a  revised  form  of  amendment  which,  I  think,  will 
accomplish  the  purpose  you  have  in  view,  and  obviate  certain  objections  which 
might  properly  be  made  to  some  of  the  provisions  contained  in  the  original. 

In  my  opinion  the  measure  proposed  will  result  in  a  very  considerable  reduction 
in  the  expenditure,  prevent  duplications  of  work,  and  secure  a  service  fully  as 
efficient  in  all  respects  as  that  now  existing. 
Very  respectfully, 

J.  G.  Carlisle, 

Secretary. 
Hon.  B.  A.  Enloe. 

House  of  Representatives. 


Washington,  May  14,  1894. 

Sir  :  In  reply  to  the  communication  from  your  committee,  dated  April  25,  request- 
ing an  opinion  from  this  Department  as  to  the  merits  of  H.  R.  bill  No.  6338,  "To 
abolish  the  Bureau  in  the  Treasury  Department  known  as  the  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey,  and  to  transfer  the  work  of  said  Bureau  to  the  Hydrographic  Office,  Bureau 
of  Navigation,  in  the  Navy  Department,  and  to  the  Geological  Survey,  in  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  Interior,"  I  have  the  honor  to  make  the  following  statement  as  to  such 
of  the  proposed  changes  as  relate  to  this  Department : 

Prior  to  the  request  of  your  committee  this  Department  had  carried  on  some  cor- 
respondence in  regard  to  this  subject  Avith  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  and  the 
chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  copies 
of  such  communications  from  this  Department  being  annexed  hereto  and  made  a 
part  of  this  reply.  The  Department  believes  now,  as  it  did  then,  that  the  work  of 
the  Coast  Survey  Office,  the  larger  portion  of  which  is  now  done  by  naval  officers 
and  at  the  expense  of  the  naval  establishment,  would  be  much  better  and  more 
economically  carried  out  did  the  Department  have  administrative  colitrol  over  it,  and 
respectfully  submits  that  it  is  most  illogical  to  have  this  work  continued  under  the 
present  auspices,  an  opinion  which  is  concurred  in  by  the  present  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  under  whom  the  Coast  Survey  Bureau  is  jdaced. 

The  first  positive  advantage  which  would  be  gained  by  a  transfer  of  this  office  to 
the  Navy  Department  would  be  that  Congress  and  the  people  would  then  know 
exactly  the  amount  of  money  annually  expended  for  Coast  Survey  work.  As  it  is 
now  the  Coast  Survey  work  is  paid  for  out  of  two  appropriations,  made  for  two 
entirely  distinct  Departments  of  the  Government.  As  will  be  seen  by  the  annexed 
letters,  a  very  large  sum  of  money  is  annually  taken  from  the  amount  appropriated 
by  Congress  for  carrying  on  the  naval  establishment  and  expended  upon  this  work ; 
while,  in  addition,  another  sum  is  taken  from  the  appropriation  for  the  Coast  Sur- 
vey Office  as  a  branch  of  the  Treasury  Department  and  charged  to  this  work.  There 
can  l>e,  therefore,  no  unity  in  the  keeping  of  accounts,  in  the  rendering  of  estimates, 
or  in  preparing  statements  of  exjienditures,  in  consequence  of  which  nothing  short 
of  a  painstaking  and  elaborate  investigation  will,  at  any  time,  show  the  actual  cost 
of  Coast  Survey  work  to  the  Government.    As  will  be  seen,  although  the  amount 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.       191 

•expended  from  naval  appropriations  for  this  work  is  largcir  than  that  expended  by  the 
Coast  Survey  Bureau  itself,  the  impression  might  readily  be  produced  that  the  entire 
expenditure"  was  charged  to  the  Coast  Survey  establishment.  Were  the  whole 
work  to  be  done  by  this  Department,  Congress  would  liave  an  itemized  estimate  for 
the  entire  work  before  it  each  year,  and  a  complete  and  accurate  statement  of  expen- 
ditures could  be  easily  prepared  at  any  time,  so  that  Congress  and  the  people  could 
always  know  just  what  the  work  of  the  Coast  Survey  was  costing. 

The  Department  can  quite  readily  understand  the  <lifficulties  in  the  way  of  a  cor- 
rect knowledge  of  this  subject  on  the  part  of  Congress  and  the  public.  By  carefully 
concealing  or  entirely  ignoring  the  work  of  naval  officers  on  the  Coast  Survey,  and 
with  no  published  records  to  show  the  fact  that  over  $250,000  of  the  money  appro- 
priated for  the  naval  establishment  is  expended  on  this  very  work,  it  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that  the  relations  of  the  Navy  1  )epartment  to  the  work  in  question  are 
very  little  understood.  Many  scientific  gentlemen  throughout  the  country,  who  are 
■deeply  interested  in  the  investigations  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  have  come 
forward  in  opposition  to  this  transfer  without  apparently  having  any  real  knowledge 
of  the  facts  in  the  case.  Right  here  it  is  well  to  state  that  the  Navy  Department 
has  no  desire  whatever  to  interfere  with  the  pursuits,  investigations,  and  speculations 
of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  in  any  works  pursued  by  it,  other  than  the  Coast 
Survey  proper. 

As  a  demonstration  of  the  complete  ignorance  of  many  of  those  who  have  come 
forward  to  give  their  views  of  this  question,  I  deem  it  but  right  that  I  should  call 
attention  to  the  fact  that  several  of  them  have  absolutely  denied  or  ignored  the  serv- 
ices rendered  by  the  Navy  Department  in  Coast  Survey  work.  It  is  unnecessary  to 
do  more  than  call  the  attention  of  the  committee  to  the  ignorance  of  the  subject 
thus  evinced.  The  expenditure  of  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  dollars  by  this  Depart- 
ment every  year,  the  detailing  of  a  large  number  of  its  officers  and  men  to  Coast 
Survey  vessels,  and  the  hydrograpliic  and  scientific  work  done  by  these  representa- 
tives of  the  Navy  are  comi)letely  ignored.  The  Department,  seeking  no  controversy 
whatever  on  this  subject,  and  having  no  desire  to  exploit  itself,  has  made,  and  will 
make,  no  preconcerted  movement  for  the  control  of  chis  work,  and  will  only  make 
statements  regarding  the  same  when  officially  called  upon  by  the  Congress  or  by  its 
committees. 

As  an  evidence  of  the  deliberate  attempt  to  cover  up  the  connection  of  the  naval 
establishment  with  the  present  work,  your  attention  is  called  to  the  statements  in 
the  annexed  letters,  wherein  it  is  shown  that  the  names  of  naval  officers  participat- 
ing in  the  work  of  the  Survey,  and  which,  by  long  custom,  Avere  usually  affixed  to  the 
charts,  have  been  recently  taken  therefrom.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Coast  Survey 
Office  has  constantly  on  dress  parade  long  lists  of  its  employes,  in  the  full  dress  of 
all  their  official  distinctions  and  learned  titles. 

The  main  object  for  which  the  Coast  Survey  was  originally  established  has  been 
greatly  confused  with  the  functions  adroitly  acquired  by  the  present  establishment. 
Gentlemen  interested  in  various  scientific  pursuits,  and  wishing  to  advance  their  own 
interests,  have  found  it  convenient,  from  time  to  time,  to  add  to  the  powers  of  the 
establishment  through  legislation. 

The  primary  object  of  the  Coast  Survey  was  to  survey  and  chart  the  coasts  of  the 
United  States.  This  work  should  have  been  finished  years  ago,  but  as  it  approached 
its  completion  the  Coast  Survey  began  to  extend  in  other  directions,  chiefly  geodetic. 
The  organization  was  finishing  the  task  for  which  it  was  created  by  Congress,  but 
the  natural  desire  to  perpetuate  its  existence  was  too  great,  and  hence  the  consequent 
addition  to  the  scope  of  its  work  and  to  the  enlargement  of  its  powers. 

The  statement  made  by  certain  of  its  friends  as  to  the  lack  of  qualifications  of 
naval  officers  for  the  work  of  the  Coast  Survey  needs  no  other  answer  than  to  point 
to  what  they  have  already  done  in  that  direction.  Indeed,  to  any  one  having  a 
knowledge  of  the  education  and  training  of  the  officers  of  the  Navy,  it  would  not 
only  be  a  waste  of  time  but-an  absurdity  to  go  into  an  argument  on  this  subject. 

The  Navy  Department  has  no  desire  to  acquire  work  belonging  to  other  depart- 
ments of  the  Government,  but  it  seems  only  just  that  it  should  control  the  work 
which  is  not  only  performed  by  its  own  officers  but  principally  paid  for  from  its  own 
appropriations;  a  work  which  deals  with  navigation,  a  matter  which  naturally 
comes  under  the  cognizance  of  the  naval  establishment.  As  to  the  geodetic  work, 
that  is  a  matter  with  which  this  Department  has  no  concern.  The  only  question 
before  you,  so  far  as  the  naval  establishment  is  concerned,  is  as  tp  the  hydrographic 
work  of  the  Coast  Survey,  a  work  which  is  intended  to  be  primarily  for  the  benefit 
of  navigation  and  commerce. 

The  chart  hereto  annexed,  and  which  was  prepared  by  the  Hydrographic  Office  of 
the  Bureau  of  Navigation,  will  show  that  the  unfinished  work  of  the  Coast  Survey 
is  exceedingly  small.  The  chart  in  q  uestion  rather  over  than  under  estimates  the 
amount  of  work  yet  to  be  done.    The  work  indicated  in  red  would  naturally  be  done 

that  in  blue  is  Coast  Survey  work 


192       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

pure  and  simple,  and  has  been,  is  now,  and  will  in  the  future  be  done  by  naval  offi- 
cers. The  future  work  of  the  Coast  Survey,  which  primarily  relates  to  the  safe- 
guards of  navigation,  will  largely  consist  in  rcsnrveys  of  the  waters  of  the  coast,  in 
order  to  determine  and  chart  the  natural  changes  which  take  pLice  from  time  to> 
time.  This  work  will,  on  account  of  the  action  of  physical  laws,  always  be  neces- 
sary, and  is  one  whicii  can  only  be  successfully  performed  by  men  Avho  combine 
scientific  training  with  an  actual  and  theoretical  knowledge  of  navigation  and 
nautical  surveying.  The  chief  object  of  this  Avork  is  to  produce  good  navigating 
charts  for  the  use  of  mariners.  It  is  a  work  only  successfully  done  by  sailors  for 
sailors.  Changes  of  the  land  features  near  the  coast  will  be  of  a  very  minor  char- 
acter,-as  maybe  readily  perceived  by  the  committee,  unless  we  include  cadastral 
operations;  that  is  to  say,  the  mapping  of  farms  and  of  the  estates  which  suffer  sub- 
division and  rearrangement,  a  work,  the  wisdom  of  which,  as  being  done  at  Govern- 
ment cost,  is  a  question  for  the  Congress  alone. 

This  Department  has  no  O])inion  whatever  to  express  as  to  the  wisdom  of  Con- 
gressional action  in  advancing  scientific  investigation  and  sx)eculative  science 
through  the  means  of  any  Bureau  or  Department.  It  only  recommends,  as  a  matter  of 
wise  administration  and  in  the  interest  of  economy,  that  it  be  given  control  of  the 
work  now  performed  by  those  who  are  paid  for  the  same  out  of  the  funds  appropri- 
ated for  the  Navy. 

When  it  is  stated  here  that  the  naval  officers  and  men  do  the  hydrographic  work 
of  the  Coast  Survey,  it  is  meant  to  emphasize  that  they  do  the  actual  work,  and  all 
statements  to  the  contrary  arise  either  from  ignorance  or  from  a  deliberate  attempt 
to  mislead  Congress  and  the  people.  The  services  of  a  large  number  of  officers,  not 
to  mention  the  crews  of  the  vessels  of  the  Coast  Survey,  are  every  year  provided 
from  the  Navy.  An  inspection  of  the  tiles  of  the  Naval  Register  discloses  the  fact 
that  a  great  number  of  officers  have  served  in  the  Coast  Survey  since  1832.  Indeed, 
so  thoroughly  dependent  is  the  x>resent  Coast  Survey  upon  the  work  of  the  naval 
officers  attached  to  it  for  its  hydrography,  that  when  this  Department  finds 
itself  unable,  by  reason  of  the  exigencies  of  the  service  proper,  to  detail  officers  and 
men  to  the  Coast  Survey  vessels,  the  work  has  to  stop.  An  examination  of  the  notes 
on  the  charts  issued  by  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  and  which,  of  course,  is 
evidence  from  that  office,  will  attest  the  work  done  by  naval  officers  and  men.  And, 
in  addition  to  the  hydrographic  work  in  the  survey  of  our  coast,  all  the  great  work 
of  deep-sea  exploration  is  not  only  done  by  naval  officers,  but  has  been  made  success- 
ful through  their  inventions.  At  the  present  time,  and  for  several  years  past,  all 
the  work  in  connection  with  the  survey  of  the  Mexican  coast  has  been  done  by  naval 
vessels,  officered  and  maned,  and  supported  by  this  Department. 

The  Hydrographic  Office,  attached  to  the  Bureau  of  Navigation  of  this  Department, 
is  well  equipped  to  take  entire  charge  of  the  Coast  Survey  work.  This  office  has 
made  a  reputation  for  itself  throughout  the  world,  and  its  charts  and  publications 
receive  the  sanction  of  standard  authority  everywhere.  The  demands  upon  the 
Department  for  hydrographic  and  other  nautical  information  were  so  imperative 
that  it  became  necessary  to  equip  and  establish  the  Hydrographic  Office  in  such  a 
manner  that  it  now  disseminates  a  great  amount  of  invaluable  information  as  safe- 
guards for  commerce  on  the  waters,  both  at  home  and  abroad.  Yet,  strange  to  say, 
notwithstanding  the  reputation  of  our  naval  Hydrographic  Office  throughout  the 
world,  and  the  fact  that  the  actual  work  of  the  Coast  Survey  is  performed  by  those 
under  the  Navy  Department,  the  office  in  question  has  no  authority  under  existing 
law  to  issue  a  chart  of  our  own  coast. 

I  therefore  respectfully  submit  that  the  proposed  transfer  is  in  the  interest  of 
economy  and  good  administrative  methods. 
Very  respectfully, 

W.  McAdoo, 

Acting  Secretary. 

Hon.  Amos  J.  Cummings, 

Chairman  Committee  on  Naval  Affairs, 

House  of  Eepresentatives, 


Navy  Department, 
Washington,  Fehruary  7, 1894. 
Sir  :  The  total  amount  expended  by  the  Navy  Department  during  the  last  fiscal 
year  for  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  was  $209,048.63. 

The  total  amount  expended   during  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1892,  was 
$217,191.85. 

The  total  amount  expended  by  the  Navy  Department  during  the  fiscal  year  ending 
June  30, 1891,  for  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  was  $257,953.60.    This  was  expended 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      193^ 

by  the  Navy  Department  in  the  actual  surveyci  of  the  waters  adjacent  to  the  coast, 
of  the  United  States.  The  amount  expended  by  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  itt 
the  actual  survey  of  the  coast  duriuji^  the  same  tiscal  year  was  $226,233.99. 

The  work  done  by  the  Navy  for  which  compensation  was  made  by  the  Navy  for- 
the  benefit  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  durinjj^  the  last  fiscal  year  and  prioc- 
years,  has  been  mainly  hydrographic  work,  taking,  locating,  and  plotting  sound- 
ings; with  incidentally  some  physical  hydrography,  current  work,  a  small  amouDt 
of  topography,  and  minor  triangulation.  In  other  words,  for  a  number  of  year& 
naval  officers  have  secured  nearly  all  the  data  used  by  the  Coast  Survey  in  making 
the  water  portion  of  their  charts,  the  officers  of  the  Coast  Survey  furnishing  the 
data  used  in  making  the  land  portion. 

Except  in  unusual  circumstances  no  officials  or  other  employes  of  the  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey  act  in  conjunction  with  the  naval  officer  in  taking  soundings,  etc.. 
But  the  Coast  Survey  officials  furnish  to  the  naval  parties  the  data  necessary  for 
locating  and  plotting  the  soundings  taken,  except  such  soundings  as  are  so  far  fsom^ 
the  coast  as  to  require  astronomical  observations  before  locating  and  plotting. 

During  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1891,  2,496  square  miles  of  hydrography- 
were  executed  by  naval  officers,  and  190  square  miles  by  Coast  Survey  assistants. 

I  am  unable  to  make  comparisons  for  the  years  1892  and  1893,  as  the  Coast  Survey- 
reports  for  those  years  have  not  been  published. 

Very  respectfully, 

H.  A.  Herbert, 

Secretary  of  the  Navy- 

Hon.  Joseph  D.  Sayers, 

Chairman  Committee  on  Appropriations, 

House  of  liepresentatives,   Washington,  D.  C. 


Navy  Department, 

Washington,  February  2,  1894. 

Sir  :  I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  the  letter  of  the  Superintend- 
ent of  the  Coast  Survey  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  dated  December 28, 1893^ 
which  was  referred  to  this  Department.  This  letter  of  the  Superintendent  of  the 
Coast  Survey  is  a  reply  to  a  letter  written  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  to  the  Sec- 
retary of  the  Treasury,  dated  December  19,  1893,  relative  to  the  omission  from  a. 
recent  Coast  Survey  chart  of  the  names  of  naval  officers  who  had  made  the  survey, 
from  which  the  chart  was  constructed. 

The  Superintendent  of  the  Coast  Survey  says  in  his  reply : 

"  The  omission  of  what  has  generally  been  called  the  'authority  note'  from  this- 
chart  was  not  an  oversight,  but  was  in  accord  with  the  policy  adopted  by  this  office- 
more  than  a  year  ago  after  a  careful  and  lengthy  examination  of  all  qnestions- 
involved." 

From  this  statement  it  appears  that  the  omission  is  due  to  a  recently  adopted  pol- 
icy of  the  Coast  Survey,  which  involves  the  exclusion  from  every  Coast  Survey  charti 
of  all  recognition  of  naval  participation  in  the  surveys. 

The  new  policy,  so  far  as  it  relates  to  public  acknowledgment  due  the  naval, 
establishment,  certainly  can  not  be  satisfactory  to  the  Navy  Department,  upon  whiclL 
falls  the  burden,  each  year,  of  diverting  a  large  part  of  its  appropriation  and  per- 
sonnel for  the  work  of  the  Coast  Survey  exclusively. 

The  latest  annual  report  of  the  Coast  Survey  in  print  is  for  the  fiscal  year  ending 
June,  1891.  Its  financial  statement  is  not  presented  in  a  way  to  admit  of  comparing 
accurately  the  expenditure  by  the  Coast  Survey  and  the  expenditure  by  the  Navy  for 
prosecuting  the  work  done  by  naval  officers  on  the  Survey.  But  the  report  shows 
that  the  total  expenditure  of  the  Coast  Survey  for  fieldwork  of  every  kind,  naval 
and  civilian,  was  $180,760.73.  For  the  items  of  hydrography  and  the  coast  pilot,, 
the  exclusive  work  practically  of  naval  officers,  it  was  only  $63,778.45.  Yet  during 
the  same  fiscal  year  the  naval  establishment  expended  for  this  work  of  the  Coast 
Survey  the  additional  amount  of  $257,953.60. 

In  the  following  year  the  Superintendent  of  the  Coast  Survey  decided  to  expunge 
from  the  hydrographic  charts  of  the  Coast  Survey,  for  the  production  of  which  the 
naval  establishment  had  expended  more  than  the  Coast  Survey,  all  acknowledgment 
of  naval  participation  in  the  Survey.  During  the  year  in  question  81  naval  officers- 
served  on  the  Coast  Survey. 

Although  the  great  amount  and  specific  purpose  of  this  annual  expenditure  fror» 
the  naval  appropriation  should  be  conspicuously  set  forth  for  the  information  of  Con- 
gress and  the  people,  the  new  policy  of  the  Superintendent  of  the  Coast  Survey  will, 
operate  in  the  direction  of  concealment. 

4561 13 


194      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

Nearly  all  the  completed  hydrography  of  the  Coast  Survey — practically  all — has 
been  done  by  naval  officers,  and  that  now  under  execution  is  in  charge'  of  naval 
oflQcers  exclusively.  Sometimes  the  lield  work  done  by  naval  officers  has  been 
extended  beyond  the  hydrography  so  as  to  include  the  whole  survey;  this  is  true  in 
the  case  of  the  chart  cited  in  the  Department's  letter  of  December  29,  1893,  from 
which  the  names  of  naval  officers,  already  engraved,  were  expunged,  in  execution  of 
the  policy  of  the  Superintendent  of  the  Coast  Survey. 

The  Coast  Survey  Bureau  was  established  to  survey  and  chart  the  coasts  of  the 
United  States.  The  charts  that  have  resulted  from  the  work  of  that  organization 
are  mainly  for  the  use  of  mariners.  In  respect  to  those  details  of  the  charts  which 
are  most  essential  to  navigation,  it  is  submitted  that  the  Navy  is  entitled  to  the 
chief  credit.  In  fact  the  hydrogra])hy  of  the  Coast  Survey  charts  is  a  monument  to 
naval  officers;  it  is  so  regarded  in  the  naval  service  and  should  be  so  regarded  in  the 
Coast  Survey  establishment. 

In  cases  where  the  ''  authority  note"  is  overburdened  by  names^  it  is  believed  that 
the  names  of  technical  employes  may  well  be  left  off.  The  real  authors  of  a  chart 
are  the  surveyors.  Handsome  engraA-ing  can  never  make  the  luiutical  value  of  a 
chart  greaterthau  the  value  of  the  survey.  It  would  hardly  be  thought  a  sufficient 
argument  for  withholding  the  names  of  the  author  of  a  technical  book  for  the  reason 
that  it  had  been  found  inexpedient  to  mention  upon  the  title  page  the  names  of  the 
compositors,  pressmen,  proof-readers,  engravers,  foreman,  and  assistants  of  the 
printing  establishment. 

Contrary  to  the  opinion  of  the  Superintendent  of  the  Coast  Survey,  this  Depart- 
ment is  assured  that  the  ^'authority  note"'  has  great  value  to  mariners,  so  far  as  it 
shows  the  names  of  the  surveyors,  but  no  value  as  setting  forth  the  names  of  the 
assistants  in  charge  of  the  branches  of  the  Coast  Survey  office,  or  of  the  skilled 
workmen  of  that  office. 

To  give  credit  to  naval  officers  by  tabulation  in  the  annual  reports  of  the  Coast 
Survey,  as  suggested  by  the  Superintendent  of  the  Coast  Survey,  is  not  deemed  suf- 
ficient. These  reports  are  rarely  referred  to  by  mariners,  and  have  only  an  occa 
sional  interest  after  the  year  of  publication,  while  the  charts  constitute  a  continu- 
ous edition,  and  have  a  widespread  circulation.  The  Coast  Survey  Report  for  1892 
has  not  yet  been  published. 

It  is  nearly  universal  practice  to  give  credit  upon  hydrographic  charts  to  officers 
who  executed  the  survey,  and  it  is  submitted  that  no  sufficient  reason  has  been  given 
by  the  Superintendent  of  the  Coast  Survey  for  abandoning  the  usual  practice.  In 
other  directions  no  great  difficulty  has  been  found  in  giving  proper  credit.  On 
special  charts  special  credit  is  commonly  given  by  name,  while  on  more  general 
charts,  involving  the  work  of  many  surveys,  more  general  credit  is  customarily 
given.  It  is  believed  that  the  Coast  Survey,  even  on  its  general  charts,  should  men- 
tion that  the  hydrography  has  been  done  by  U.  S.  naval  officers,  and  in  cases 
where  a  chart  results  from  the  survey  of  a  single  party  of  U.  S.  naval  officers,  that 
the  names  of  the  contributing  officers  should  be  given.  In  certain  cases  the  names 
of  officers  commanding  parties  might  suffice. 

Sixteen  countries  carry  on  surveys  of  their  own  coasts.  In  all  but  two  of  these, 
namely,  the  United  States  and  Portugal,  the  surveys  are  made  and  the  charts  pub- 
lished by  the  naval  establishments.  Portugal  alone  offers  an  analogous  example  to 
that  which  prevails  in  the  United  States  in  respect  to  the  division  of  the  work.  In 
Portugal,  officers  of  the  navy  are  placed  temporarily  under  the  minister  of  public 
works  for  the  execution  of  the  hydrographic  work  on  the  coast  survey.  In  the 
titles  of  the  resulting  charts  every  one  of  the  naval  officers  engaged  in  the  work  is 
mentioned  by  name. 

Leaving  the  case  of  Portugal  out  of  consideration,  it  is  seen  that  the  work  of  the 
U.  S.  Coast  Survey  is  peculiar.  Practically  it  is  carried  on  by  the  labor  and 
appropriations  of  two  great  departments,  only  one  of  which  exercises  administra- 
tive powers  over  the  work.  The  Superintendent  of  the  Coast  Survey  has  put  into 
execution  a  policy  the  practical  effect  of  which  is  to  exclude  from  public  observa- 
tion the  participation  of  the  other  Gov crnment  department. 

It  is  requested  that  this  policy  of  the  Superintendent  of  the  Coast  Survey  be  set 
aside. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  very  respectfully, 

H.  A.  Herbert, 

Secretary  of  the  Navy. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 

Washington,  D.  C. 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  desire  now  to  submit  to  the  committee  a  report  of  the 
Chenoweth  investigation,  which  was  an  investigation  of  the  manage- 
ment of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  made  in  1885.    I  made  efforts 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.       195 

heretofore  to  get  possession  of  tliis  report,  so  that  I  might  have  an  oi)por- 
tuiiity  to  see  what  it  disclosed  iu  regard  to  the  abuses  of  tlie  admiiiistra- 
tiou  which  then  controlled  this  Bureau.  I  was  denied  access  to  this 
report  by  the  present  Superintendent  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey, 
when  I  applied  to  him  during  the  sessions  of  the  Fifty-second  Congress, 
on  the  ground  that  the  copy  in  his  possession  was  the  private  property 
of  Mr.  Thorn.  It  seems  that  the  Treasury  Department  has  obtained  a 
copy  of  the  original  report  and  papers  and  turned  them  over  to  the 
Committee  on  Naval  Affairs.  I  desire  the  report  to  appear  without  the 
interlineatious  which  I  understand  were  made  in  red  ink  by  Mr.  Thorn 
after  the  report  had  been  submitted  and  acted  upon  and  made  a  part  of 
the  records.  I  do  not  think  Mr.  Thorn  had  any  authority  as  an  indi- 
vidual to  revise  the  work  of  the  committee  or  to  attempt  in  any  respect 
to  alter  the  effect  of  the  committee's  report,  whatever  his  individual 
opinion  might  have  been  at  a  subsequent  period.  This  is  a  public  doc- 
ument which  should  have  been  made  public  long  ago,  but  was  for  some 
reason  temporarily  suppressed. 

REPORT  OF   THE   COMMISSIOX    TO   INVESTIGATE   THE   UNITED    QTATES  AND   GEODETIC 

SURVEY. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  : 

Sir:  The  undersigned,  members  of  the  commission  appointed  by  you  to  investi- 
gate charges  against  the  management  of  the  office  of  the  U.  S.  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey,  respectfully  submit  to  you,  through  the  First  Auditor  of  the  Treasury, 
the  following  report : 

In  conformity  with  your  instructions  of  July  23  last,  we  proceeded,  on  the  morn- 
ing of  the  24th  ultimo,  to  the  office  of  said  Survey  in  this  city,  took  possession  of  the 
books,  accounts,  and  such  other  papers  as  seemed  necessary  to  the  investigation, 
and  from  day  to  day  examined  the  same;  called,  and  under  their  oaths,  examined  a 
large  number  of  witnesses,  in  nearly  all  instances  reducing  their  testimony  to  writ- 
ing in  the  form  of  depositions,  and  generally  took  such  measures  as  seemed  to  us 
practicable  and  proper  to  enable  us  to  report  the  actual  condition  and  workings  of 
said  office.  Our  investigation,  thus  continued  on  each  working-day  until  the  date  of 
this  report,  leaves  no  ground  for  doubt  that  the  actual  condition  of  the  office  of  the 
Survey  was  one  of  demoralization,  and  its  working,  to  a  serious  extent,  inefficient, 
unjust,  and,  to  some  extent,  disreputable. 

That  many  of  the  defects  in  its  condition  and  management  are  the  result  of  gradual 
growth,  under  a  system  of  regulations  which  afford  excellent  opportunities — if  not 
even  invitations — for  the  perpetration  of  abuses,  is  doubtless  true;  but  it  seems 
unquestionable  that  the  responsibility  for  the  lamentablejcondition,  which  was  quite 
generally  conceded  by  the  employes,  is  due  to  a  willingness  on  the  part  of  the  late 
Superintendent  to  avail  himself  of  those  opportunities  for  a  continuance  of  abuses — 
to  his  weakness  or  procrastination  in  administering  his  office — to  his  toleration  and 
apparent  encouragement  of  vicious  practices — to  his  exhibitions  of  favoritism  and 
arrogance — to  his  continued  and  flagrant  disregard,  apparently,  of  regulations 
devised  in  the  interest  of  honest,  efficient,  and  economical  administration — to  his 
protection  of  exposed  rascality,  and  to  his  own  unfortunate,  confessed,  and  locally 
notorious  addiction  to  the  use  of  intoxicants. 

Either  of  these  causes  would  seriously  militate  against  efficient  administration. 
In  combination  they  seem  to  have  been  fatally  effective,  inasmuch  as  they  afforded 
the  demoralizing  influence  of  a  vicious  example  to  such  of  his  subordinates  as  chose 
to  imitate  it,  while  depriving  him  of  the  respect  and  confidence  of  nearly,  if  not 
quite,  all. 

A  good  deal  of  the  testimony  referred  to,  and  some  of  that  taken  by  us,  was  hear- 
say or  inferential;  but  evidence  afforded  by  books  and  papers,  or  by  the  testimony 
of  witnesses,  either  undisputed  or  who  carried  conviction  by  their  intelligence  or 
integrity,  or  by  both,  establishes  conclusively,  to  the  minds  of  the  commission,  the 
following  facts : 

That  moneys  received  from  the  Navy  Department,  from  Office  Engineers  U.  S. 
Army,  for  electrotyping,  etc.,  and  from  the  District  of  Columbia,  for  surveys,  were 
not  deposited  iuthe  Treasury,  but  after  certain  deductions  for  cost  of  material,  etc., 
were  divided  among  employes  receiving  regular  salaries,  as  extra  pay  for  extra  work, 
in  violation  of  law.     (See  sections  170,  1764,  1765,  Revised  Statutes.) 

That  the  books  kept  in  the  Instrument  Division,  although  exceedingly  imperfect 
and  incomplete,  still  show  that  many  valuable  instruments  charged  to  persons  no 


196       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

longer  in  tlie  employment  of  the  Survey  have  no  tl)een  returned  or  accounted  for; 
and  that  a  number  of  valuable  instruments  have  been  loaned  to  institutions  of  learn- 
ing and  to  individuals,  without  any  apparent  authority  therefor,  and  that  such  instru- 
ments are  still  out.  The  books,  ho  wever,  are  so  defective  that — as  was  demonstrated 
to  your  committee — little  or  no  reliance  can  be  placed  in  their  statements  or  record. 

That  G.  N.  Saegmuller,  late  chief  of  the  Instrument  Division,  was,  while  such 
chief,  a  x^artner  in  the  firm  of  Fauth  &  Co.,  instrument-makers  of  this  city,  who  have 
furnished  a  very  large  amount  of  the  instruments  purchased  by  the  Survey  since 
said  hrm  was  organized.  Their  trade  with  the  Bureau  in  1882,  1883,  and  1884  was 
$24,369.46,  and  prior  to  June  30,  1884,  their  name  seldom  appeared  u})on  the  abstracts 
rendered  to  the  Treasury,  but  their  accounts  were  treated  as  subvouchers  in  the 
personal  voiichers  of  the  disbursing  agent,  who  receipted  direct  to  Government  for 
the  amonnt. 

That  property  and  material  belonging  to  the  Survey  have  been  taken  from  the 
office  to  the  house  of  Fauth  &,  Co.,  and  have  not  been  returned,  and  some  testimony 
was  taken  justifying  a  presumptions  that  some  property  and  materials  have  been 
wrongfully  converted  to  the  use  of  that  firm. 

That  visiting  cards  for  private  parties,  including  Supt.  Hilgard  and  family  and 
other  employes  of  Bureau,  have  been  frequently  printed  in  the  copperplate-print- 
ing room  of  the  Engraving  Division  of  the  Survey  during  office  hours,  at  quite  an 
expense  and  loss  of  time,  by  direction  of  Mr.  H.  G.  Ogdeu,  chief  of  the  division. 

That  the  chief  of  the  drawing  division,  Mr.  W.  T.  Bright,  has  been  paid  commis- 
sions on  work  done  by  employ^^s  of  the  division  for  outside  private  parties ;  also  that 
moneys  have  been  paid  to  employes  of  that  division  by  Lieut.  Coi.  Craighill  and 
Lieut.  Col.  Warren,  IJ.  S.  Army,  for  work  done,  out  of  appropriations  made  by  the 
Government;  that  Mr.  C.  Junken  received  $400  from  Maj.  Lydecker,  U.  S.  Army,  for 
surveying  done  by  him  (Jnuken)  for  the  fishways  at  the  Great  Falls  of  the  Potomac, 
which  amount  was  disallowed  in  the  settlement  of  Lydecker^s  accounts  at  the  Treas- 
ury; and  that  Mr.  W.  T.  Bright,  the  chief  of  the  drawing  division,  is  much  addicted 
to  strong  drink,  and  is  frequently  under  the  influence  of  liquor  in  office  hours. 

That  traveling  expenses  have  been  incurred  unnecessarily,  and  apparently  Avith 
the  view  of  favoring  certain  employes,  rather  than  for  advancing  the  real  good  of 
the  Survey,  as  in  the  case  of  Morgan  and  Parsons  making  separate  trips  to  New 
York  to  get  a  paper  or  evidence  of  authority  from  the  Screw  Dock  Company  in  rela- 
tion to  a  voucher  for  $120  suspended  in  his  (Morgan's)  accounts;  in  the  case  of  clerk 
M.  W.  Wines,  who  has  made  several  trips  ostensibly  to  '*  inspect  chart  agencies," 
without  apparent  necessity,  all  the  matter  alleged  to  have  been  inspected,  having 
teen  susceptible  of  easy  ascertainment  by  mail;  and  in  the  case  of  employes  sent 
out  to  make  observations  at  points  where  it  was  altogether  useless  and  unnecessary 
(as  shown  by  testimony  of  Mr.  Schott  and  Mr,  Christie). 

That  in  the  case  of  Assistant  J.  S.  Bradford,  who  presented  false  vouchers  with 
his  accounts,  and,  when  discovered,  refunded  the  amount  thereof  through  his  wife, 
and  by  an  advance  on  his  salary. 

No  action  was  taken,  except  to  let  him  ''lie  by,"  as  Prof.  Hilgard  phrased  it,  but 
he  was  continued  in  the  employment  of  the  Survey;  which  seems  to  have  been  a 
deliberate  condonation  of  embezzlement,  forgery,  and  drunkenness,  to  the  inevitable 
demoralization  of  the  service,  and  all  respect  for,  or  confidence  in,  its  management. 

That  Prof.  Hilgard,  the  Superintendent  of  the  Survey,  has  been  frequently  seen 
at  the  office  by  various  employ esJunder  the  influence  of  liquor;  that  his  drinking 
habits  generally  unfitted  him  for  business  every  afternoon,  and  that  of  late  years 
he  has  manifested  a  general  unfitness  and  incapacity  for  the  duties  of  his  office. 

That  old  and  incapacitated  persons  have  been  and  are  still  carried  on  the  pay  rolls 
of  the  Survey  without  rendering  any  service,  in  violation  of  the  provisions  of  Sec- 
tion 87  of  the  regulations  (as  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Samuel  Hein,  paid  $150  per  month 
as  librarian,  who  renders  no  service,  having  been  entirely  disabled) ;  that  a  number 
of  ladies  on  the  rolls  never  come  to  the  office  except  to  receive  their  pay,  their  work 
being  sent  to  them,  and  being  in  some  instances  so  light  that  the  employes  seem  gen- 
erally to  classify  them  as  ''pensioners." 

That  valuable  works  belonging  to  the  library  of  the  Survey  having  been  taken  out 
by  employes,  and  never  returned  (as  in  the  case  of  about  200  volumes  taken  out  by 
Prof.  Pierce,  as  shown  in  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Christie  and  the  present  librarian. 
Reed,  to  whom  Pierce  excused  his  neglect  to  return  books  by  the  remark  that  he 
had  had  two  fires  and  could  not  therefore  be  responsible  for  the  books. 

That  Dr.  Thomas  Craig,  while  m  the  employment  of  the  Survey,  was  also  receiv- 
ing pay  from  Johns  Hopkins  University,  to  wit,  from  1880  to  1882. 

That  chronometer  watches,  belonging  to  the  Survey,  were  found  to  be  in  the  pos- 
session of  certain  employes,  viz,  J.  E.  Hilgard,  M.  W.  Wines,  and  C.  S.  Peirce, 
and  worn  by  them,  some  of  whom  are  not  connected  with  any  scientific  work. 
Hilgard  had  one  stolen  and  was  given  another,  and  never  accounted  for  the  stolen 
one. 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      197 

That  a  black  mare,  belonging  to  the  Survey,  was  sold  to  a  Mr.  Shaw  for  $50.  That 
the  amount  was  received  by  Mr.  M.  W.  Wines  and  l)y  him  turned  over  to  Prof. 
Hilgard,  the  Superintendent,  and  that  he  retained  the  money  and  failed  to  account 
for  it — as  he  now  explains — by  reason  of  *'  lapse  of  memory." 

That  an  irregular  voucher  for  $18.27  to  cover  various  amounts  for  cab  hire,  paid  at 
different  times  to  different  parties  by  Capt.  C.  O.  Boutelle,  the  late  assistant  in 
charge  of  the  office,  was  made  out  and  signed  by  Mr.  Shaw  at  Boutelle's  request  in 
December  quarter,  1884 ;  that  Mr.  Shaw  never  received  a  cent  on  account  of  the 
same,  and  said  voucher  was  charged  in  the  accounts  of  the  disbursing  agent,  and 
check  No.  240133,  U.  S.  Treasurer,  drawn  to  B.  F.  Shaw  or  bearer  issued  to  Bou- 
telle. This  was  in  direct  violation  of  the  provisions  of  Section  5496,  Revised 
Statutes.  The  allowance  is  also  prohibited  by  section  67  of  the  Regulations  of  the 
Survey. 

That  Prof.  Hilgard,  during  the  time  he  was  assistant  in  charge  of  the  office,  sent 
for  Mr.  E.  J.  Sommer,  of  the  drawing  division,  and  exhibited  to  him  a  voucher  which  he 
stated  was  in  Russian,  and  would  not  pass  the  Treasury,  and  at  the  same  time  handed 
to  him  duplicate  vouchers  and  requested  him  (Sommer)  to  sign  them  in  the  name  of 
^'  Georg  Bauer,''  which  Sommer  did;  that  the  amount  of  the  voucher  was  $175. 

That  on  the  resignation  or  death  of  an  employe  or  employes  of  the  Survey,  the 
undrawn  portion  of  the  salary  of  such  employe  for  the  balance  of  the  fiscal  year  is 
divided  up  amongst  certain  employes,  by  means  of  a  system  of  so-called  promotion, 
whi(;h  generally  gives  the  greatest  portion  to  persons  who  were  already  drawing 
higher  salaries  than  the  incumbent  who  happens  to  die  or  resign.  This  is,  in  fact, 
no  promotion,  but  a  device  for  using  uji  and  distributing  the  portion  of  the  salary  of 
the  employes  dying  or  resigning,  which  would  otherwise  revert  to  the  Treasury.  As 
for  example,  on  the  resignation  of  W.  H.  Dall,  September  20, 1884,  the  sum  of  $1,326.97, 
the  balance  of  his  salary  not  drawn  or  paid,  was  distributed  and  divided  up  by  this 
so-called  promotion  among  certain  employes,  some  of  whom  were  receiving  higher 
pay  than  Dall;  and  so,  on  the  death  of  H.  W.Blair,  December  16,  1884,  the  undrawn 
balance  of  $874.26  was  divided  and  distributed  in  like  manner. 

That  requests  have  often  been  made  from  the  computing  division,  the  work  of 
which  is  badly  in  arrears,  that  assistants  who  had  completed  their  work  in  the  field 
and  were  idle  and  unemployed  might  be  assigned  to  the  office  for  office  work,  but 
that  sach  requests  have  always  been  disregarded,  on  the  pretext  that  there  would 
be  no  money  for  paying  to  such  assistants  their  per  diem  subsistence  if  brought  to 
Washington  and  assigned  to  the  office  for  duty.  Such  subsistence  actually  rests  in 
the  discretion  of  the  Superintendent,  who  might,  therefore,  have  properly  withheld 
it,  and  provided  for  work  of  such  assistants  for  a  time  without  it. 

That  bottles  containing  liquor  have  been  at  various  times,  and  frequently,  passed 
by  the  messengers  to  the  rooms  of  certain  employes  of  the  Survey,  also  to  the  room 
of  the  Superintendent. 

That  a  tide-ganger,  who  had  neglected  his  duties  for  five  months  without  making 
regular  reports,  and  whose  reports,  when  received,  were  so  inaccurate  and  imper- 
fect as  to  be  practically  useless,  was  paid  his  salary  or  compensation  for  the  foil 
time,  although  the  facts  were  known.     (See  testimony  of  L.  P.  Shidy.) 

That  for  several  years,  beginning  in  1873,  C.  S.  Peirce,  assistant,  and  in  charge, 
nominally,  of  division  of  weights  and  measures,  has  been  making  experimental 
reseaches  with  pendulums,  without  restriction  or  limitation  as  to  times  or  jilaces. 
That  since  1879  the  expenditures  on  account  of  those  experiments — aside  from  sal- 
aries of  chiefs  of  parties  and  office  employes  detailed  to  assist  him — amount  to 
about  $31,000.  That  the  meager  value  of  those  experiments  to  this  Bureau  is  sub- 
stantially destroyed  by  his  utter  disregard  of  the  regulations  requiring  the  filing 
of  their  records,  duplicates,  or  computations.  From  1879  to  1881  Mr.  Pierce  was 
lecturer  at  Johns  Hopkins  University  at  a  salary  of  $1,500,  and  in  1882,  1883,  and 
1884,  at  a  salary  of  $2,500  per  annum,  and  at  all  times  has  apparently  been  indepen- 
dent of  control  or  the  semblance  of  discipline. 

That  one  of  the  messengers  has  been  twice  detailed  to  act  as  nurse  for  sick 
^'assistants":  Once,  at  Providence  Hospital,  Washington,  two  months,  by  Capt. 
Boutelle ;  and  once,  four  days,  at  the  same  time  receiving  his  salary  as  messenger, 
(Testimony  of  Atwell  Richardson.) 

That  "  acting  assistants"  are  paid  $4  per  day  for  every  day  instead  of  for  "  work- 
ing days,"  as  per  paragraph  17  of  Regulations  (deposition  of  Fagin,  accountant), 
and  Marcus  Baker  was  paid  $1,650  per  annum  during  fiscal  years  1883  and  1884,  as 
such. 

That  expenditures  were  made  from  wrong  appropriations.  Instance,  analyzed  by 
Schott  &  Courtenay,  in  New  Jersey,  where  a  few  hours  ''magnetic  observations^' 
were  made  to  cover  a  season's  expenses  ''Triangulation." 

That  E.  August  Reubsam,  an  inexperienced  hoy,  was  paid  $1,758.36  during  the 
six  months  from  January  1, 1885,  ostensibly  for  engraving.  That  after  examining  H. 
G.  Oyden,  in  charge  of  the  engraving  division,  and  Reubsam  himself,  it  was  only  a 


198      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

severe  catechism  of  the  latter  that  elicited  the  fact  that  all  but  $90  of  the  above 
sum  had  been  turned  over  by  him  to  other  engravers  in  the  office,  with  whom,  by 
permission  and  at  the  suggestion  of  Oyden,  he  had  made  subcontracts  to  do  engrav- 
ing for  which  he  had  made  contracts  in  his  own  name  with  the  Bureau.  When  this 
fact  was  extorted  from  Reubsam,  Mr.  Ogden's  explanation  was  to  the  effect  that  ^'it 
was  the  understanding  in  the  office  that  it  might  not  appear  well  on  the  vouchers  if 
the  extra  work  on  contract  was  given  directly  to  employes  of  the  office— that 
explanations  would  be  needed,"  and  so  the  contracts  were  let  to  a  minor  outside  of 
the  Bureau,  who  acted  as  broker  or  middleman  between  the  office  and  the  competent 
employes  at  a  confessed  commission  of  3  per  cent.  Whether  the  queer  arrangement 
imparted  an  appearance  of  respectability  to  anything  besides  vouchers,  that  "might 
not  appear  well  "  we  were  unable  to  ascertain. 

That  Mrs.  Brainard  has  been  carried  on  roll  at  $50  per  month,  live  months,  with- 
out rendering  service ;  and  Hilgard  wants  now  to  withdraw  the  accqnnt  presented  for 
her  services;  that  the  payments  were  made  ostensibly  and  upon  vouchers  for  "ser- 
vices as  tide  keeper." 

That  Superintendent  Hilgard  admits  that  he  might  have  cut  down  the  field  force 
to  advantage  after  reduction  in  appropriation  last  year  and  year  before,  but  did  not 
want  to  be  invidious  to  employds  as  long  as  the  money  was  appropriated. 

ThatC.  O.  Boutelle  caused  to  be  constructed  in  the  office  an  elevator  for  passen- 
gers, which,  owing  to  the  slowness  of  motion  and  the  convenience  and  shortness  of 
stair  flights,  is  of  doubtful  utility. 

That  Disbursing  Agent  W.  B.  Morgan  uses  intoxicants  to  excess,  and  is  habitually 
absent  from  the  office,  so  that  mail  matter  and  matter  requiring  his  signature  has 
A^ery  frequently  to  be  sent  to  him;  that  he  knew  the  circumstances  attending  the 
spurious  voucher  in  favor  of  Shaw  for  Boutelle's  cab  fares,  and  aided  the  transac- 
tion by  making  the  check  payable  '*  to  bearer,"  as  well  as  by  passing  an  invalid  and 
deceptive  voucher. 

That  on  the  occasion  of  the  funeral  of  Assistant  Blair  at  Lexington,  Va.,  about 
December  19,  1884,  Edwin  Smith,  assistant,  and  F.  H.  Parsons,  subassistant,  went 
from  Washington,  D.  C,  and  C.  H.  Sinclair,  assistant,  went  from  Charlottesville, 
Va.,  and  attended  the  obsequies.  Upon  their  return,  and  apparently  on  December 
21,  in  the  cases  of  Smith  and  Sinclair,  and  on  December  31  in  the  case  of  Parsons, 
traveling  expenses  incurred  upon  that  trip  to  the  amount  of  $29.10  for  Smith,  $7.20 
for  Sinclair,  and  $16.85  for  Parsons  were  paid  to  them  upon  the  usual  form  of  voucher 
purporting  to  have  been  predicated  upon  the  Superintendent's  instructions.  Exam- 
ination of  the  letter  press  of  instructions  shows  that  the  following  letter  of  instruc- 
tions was  sent  to  each : 

''  Washington,  December  ifl,  1884. 
"Dear  Sir:  You  will  please  proceed  to  Lexington,  Va.,  and  transact  such  husinesa 
as  I  have  designated  to  you,  upon  the  completion  of  which   report  to  me  in  person  at 
this  office. 

"  Yours  respectfully, 

"J.  E.  Hilgard, 

"  Superintendent." 

The  phrase  "  and  transact  such  business  as  I  have  designate!  to  you,"  shows  how 
easy  it  is,  by  specious  and  deceptive  "instructions"  to  give  a  scientific  turn  to  the 
most  melancholy  "business."  When  it  appears,  as  it  does  by  an  examination  of  the 
"instruction  book,"  that  those  letters,  apparently  written  prior  to  the  excursion, 
were  really  written  about  .January  10,  1885.  and  antedated  to  December  16,  1884, 
quite  a  vivid  idea  may  be  had  of  the  complaisance  with  which  "star-eyed  science  " 
sometimes  winks  at  crooked  practices  and  gives  unlawful  excursions  by  Coast 
Survey  employes,  a  semblance  of  propriety. 

That  G.  N.  Saegmuller,  an  alien,  entered  the  service  of  the  Bureau  in  July,  1873, 
and  became  a  naturalized  citizen  of  the  United  States  in  1883,  notwithstanding  the 
regulation,  Section  84,  prohibiting  theemploymeutof  an  alien  more  than  sixmonths. 

That  an  arrangement  was  made  with  the  superintendent  by  which  R.  M.  Harvey 
swears  he  was  carried  on  the  rolls  as  tidal  observer,  at  $50  per  month,  from  April  15 
to  July  1  last,  without  performing  any  service.  Superintendent  Hilgard  admits 
that  he  made  a  similar  arrangement  by  which  N.  Y.  Cavitt,  for  two  months  after 
resigning  as  Janitor,  was  paid  $100  per  month  for  service  as  "  special  observer  at 
Mobile,"  while  rendering  no  service  and  being  in  Washington  or  Tennessee. 

That  the  salaries  of  S.  Hein,  $1,800,  superannuated  librarian,  and  T.  D.  Reed, 
assistant  librarian,  $1,000,  make  the  cost  of  caring  for  the  Coast  Survey  library 
$233.33  permonth,  when  $83.33  per  month  pays  for  all  the  services  actually  rendered. 

That  G.  N.  Saegmuller  continues  to  be  really  a  partner  in  Fauth  &  Co.,  notwith- 
standing his  pretended  withdrawal,  which  was  merely  a  substitution  of  a  liquidated 
sum  instead  of  contingent  profits. 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  ANu  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      199 

The  sworn  statements  of  J.  E.  Hilgard  and  13.  A.  Colonna  would  appear  to  warrant 
the  opinion  that  under  the  present  rate  of  appropriations  the  force  might  be  con- 
siderably reduced  under  a  judicious  system  of  natural  selection,  or,  rather,  rational 
rejection. 

Of  the  moneys  hereinbefore  referred  to  as  having  been  received  from  the  Navy 
Department,  from  Office  Engineers,  U.  S.  Army,  and  from  the  District  of  Columbia, 
by  employes  of  this  Bureau,  and  not  turned  into  the  Treasury,  th(;re  was,  as  nearly 
as  can  be  ascertained,  received  for  extra  work : 

For  electrotyping : 

By  Anton  Zumbrock — 

April  25, 1882 $130.  32 

.July  24,  1882 123.66 

August  4, 1882 51.  71 

January  12,1883 206.15 

Total 511. 84 

By  Frank  Over — 

April  25, 1882 60.16 

July  24, 1882 61.82 

August  4, 1882 25.  85 

January  12, 1883 103. 07 

Total 250. 90 

For  office  work,  District  of  Columbia  survey: 

By  A.  E.  Burton  (not  now  an  employd),  Julv  21, 1882 83.  00 

By  E.J.  Sommer,  August  9, 1882 ."^ 50.00 

By  Chas.  Junken 400.  00 

For  tracing  of  maps,  charts,  etc. : 
By  L.  Karcher — 

From  Lieut.  Col.  G.  K.  Warren,  February  10, 1882 21.  00 

From  Lieut.  Col.  W.  P.  Craighill,  March  30, 1882 35. 00 

From  Lieut.  Col.  G.  H.  Elliott,  January  19, 1884 10.  00 

Total 66.00 

By  E.  Willenbucher— 

From  Lieut.  Col.  W.  P.  Craighill,  January  25, 1882 45.  00 

From  Lieut.  Col .  W.  P.  Craighill,  February  24, 1882 45. 00 

Total : 90.00 

Bv  E.  J.  Sommer — 

From  Lieut.  Col.  W.  P.  Craighill,  January  25,  1882 50. 00 

From  Lieut.  Col.  W.  P.  Craighill,  February  24,  1882 47.  00 

From  Lieut.  Col.  W.  P.  Craighill,  April  17,  1882 95.  00 

From  Lieut.  Col.  G.  H.  Elliott,  February  27,  1883 25. 00 

Total 217.00 

By  W.  T.  Bright— from  Lieut.  Col.  G.  H.  Elliott,  February  17,  1884 5.  00 

With  the  exception  of  the  extra  work  on  electrotyping,  which  from  its  nature  had 
to  be  done  concurrent  with  the  regular  electrotyping  work  of  the  Bureau,  the  fore- 
going extra  work  was  performed  out  of  office  hours.  Nevertheless,  the  retention  of 
the  money,  which  was  paid  to  them  out  of  funds  appropriated  by  the  U.  S.  Govern- 
ment and  for  work  done  for  departments  or  officers  of  that  Government,  and  there- 
fore for  the  Government,  appears  to  be  in  violation  of  sections  170,  1764,  and  1765  of 
the  Revised  Statutes  United  States.  It  is  but  fair  to  say,  however,  that  the  work 
was  done  and  pay  received  without  any  thought  of  illegality,  with  the  full  assent 
of  the  Bureau  officers,  and  in  pursuance  of  a  custom  which  has  long  openly  pre- 
vailed, though  it  has  ceased  as  to  electrotyping.  Enforced  restitution  would  involve 
serious  hardship  in  nearly  every  case.  In  view  of  these  facts  and  of  the  possible 
legality  of  the  transaction,  we  venture  to  suggest  the  propriety  of  a  reference  of  the 
question  of  its  legality  to  the  Hon.  Attorney-General  before  proceedings  are  taken 
to  compel  restitution. 

There  is  no  system  of  bookkeeping  in  the  office  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey 
by  which  the  receipts  from  sales  of  charts,  maps,  and  Coast  Survey  publications, 


!200      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

hj  sale  agents,  aud  at  the  chart  room  of  the  office  can  be  verified.  Du]>licate  cer- 
tificates of  deposit  show  that  from  April  6,  1877,  to  July  31, 1885,  the  sum  of  $26,568.77 
has  been  deposited  in  the  Treasury  on  account  of  receipts  from  such  sales.  Remit- 
tances from  sale  a<:ents  are  made  by  drafts,  checks,  and  post-office  money  orders, 
payable  to  difierent  employes  of  the  office,  and,  under  existing  practice,  are  turned 
into  cash  and  placed  in  the  safe  of  the  assistant  in  charge,  who  from  time  to  time 
makes  deposits  of  the  aggregate  amounts  on  hand.  Prior  to  .January  1,  1881,  no 
book  account  of  the  receipts  seems  to  have  been  kept,  and  the  book  kept  since  that 
date  is  very  imperfect,  aud  is  not  a  correct  statement  of  all  receipts  from  sales.  It 
appears  that  the  sum  of  $7.80  received  at  the  chart  room  for  sales  for  September, 
1884,  has  never  been  entered  on  the  book,  and  that  there  is  a  balance  of  $13.33  still 
^o  be  paid  on  account  of  receipts  to  February  6,  1883,  the  deposit  of  that  date  being 
$13.33  short,  making  the  total  amount  (as  far  as  can  be  ascertained)  to  be  accounted 
■for  and  paid  into  the  Treasury  $21.13. 

It  is  recommended  that  a  book  account  of  the  charts,  maps,  and  other  publica- 
Ttions  now  on  hand,  and  such  as  may  be  hereafter  i>ubli8hed,  be  kept  by  valuations, 
^nd  in  such  a  manner  that  it  may  at  any  time  be  determined  whether  all  receipts 
Jfrom  sales  have  been  accounted  for  and  deposited  in  the  Treasury. 

*  tt  would  also  seem  that  systematic  business  methods  would  require  that  one  officer 
only  should  be  charged  with  the  duty  of  receiving  and  accounting  for  these  moneys 
as  well  as  moneys  received  from  all  other  sources. 

An  examination  of  the  accounts  of  the  disbursing  agent  was  made  which  showed 
that  at  the  close  of  business  on  the  23d  ultimo  there  was  an  excess  of  assets  overlia- 
fbilities  of  $5.91,  according  to  the  vouchers  exhibited  to  us.  A  detailed  statement  of 
ithe  condition  of  his  accounts  will  be  made  as  soon  as  his  balances  in  the  hands  of 
fcthe  Treasurer  of  the  United  States  and  the  assistant  treasurers  at  New  York  and  San 
JFrancisco  shall  have  been  verified  by  the  accounts  current  of  those  officers. 

The  sum  of  $96.87,  corresponding  with  the  balance  shown  by  the  memorandum 
book  of  the  account  of  electrotyping  for  the  Navy  and  Engineers' Office,  U.  S.  Army, 
:and  office  work  for  District  of  Columbia  survey,  was  found  in  the  safe  of  the  assist- 
.ant  in  charge,  which  is  ready  to  be  deposited  in  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States, 

While  the  instructions,  in  pursuance  of  which  the  investigation  was  undertaken, 
<io  not  require  the  framing  of  an  indictment  of  the  individuals  who  appear  to  have 
been  compromised  by  the  evidence,  it  seems  proper  that — in  the  interest  of  the  more 
<or  less  extensive  reorganization  which  a  due  regard  for  the  prosperity  of  the  Bureau 
imperatively  demands — we  should  refer,  by  name,  to  the  individuals  who,  to  a 
.greater  or  less  extent,  appear  to  be  implicated  by  that  evidence. 

If  the  intemperate  habit  of  Prof.  Hilgard,  late  Superintendent,  confessed  by  him 
:and  established  by  abundance  of  testimony,  were  not  of  itself  a  complete  disquali- 
•fication  for  the  discbarge  of  the  responsible  duties  from  which  he  was  suspended, 
'his  own  deposition  afi:brds  abundant  evidence  of  either  such  failure  or  faculty  or 
perversion  of  moral  sense  as  must  be  held  to  quite  unfit  him  for  a  ])osition  of 
iresponsibility ;  while  the  evidence  of  his  large  share  of  responsibility  for  the  unsat- 
asfactory  condition  and  recent  dubious  reputation  of  the  Bureau,  and  the  substan- 
tially unanimous  concurrence  of  opinion  among  the  principal  employes  of  the  office, 
'quite  emphatically  suggest  the  impropriety  of  his  restoration  to  any  office  duty. 

There  is  some  evidence — mainly  his  own  testimony — to  show  that  C.  O.  Boutelle  has 
imade  efforts  to  correct  some  of  the  irregularities  revealed  by  the  investigation. 
Those  efforts  have  not  been  very  strenuous,  and  he  has  ])erhaps  manifested  an  undue 
Tespect  for  the  official  dignity  of  his  superior  and  been  too  diffident  about  complain- 
ing to  their  common  superior,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  His  personal  integ- 
irity  is  indorsed  with  considerable  vehemence  by  some  of  the  prominent  office 
•employes.  His  procurement  of  liveryman  Shaw  to  sign  a  voucher  for  promiscuous 
'cab  fares,  of  which  Shaw  had  received  no  part,  and  simply  to  enable  Jioutelle  to 
recover  $18.27,  to  which  he  was  not  entitled  under  the  regulations  of  the  Bureau, 
«eem8  to  justify  the  opinion  that  if  he  is  personally  lionest,  he  might  with  advan- 
tage be  more  scrujjulously  careful  or  keenly  intelligent.  He  perhaps  does  not  deserve 
dismissal  from  the  service,  but  his  restoration  to  the  position  of  assistant  in  charge 
would  seem  to  be  a  measure  of  quite  dubious  propriety. 

While  there  was  no  conclusive  evidence  of  the  conversion  of  any  property  of  the 
'Bureau  to  the  use  of  G.  N.  Saegmuller,  or  the  firm  of  which  he  was  a  member,  there 
*was  enough  of  testimony  to  raise  a  strong  suspicion  th^it  there  has  not  always  been 
A  scrupulous  distinction  between  the  articles  and  materials  of  the  Bureau  and  those 
«f  the  firm.  The  antagonism  between  the  interest  of  Saegmuller,  partner  in  an 
anstrument  manufactory,  and  his  duty  as  foreman  of  the  Instrument  Division  of  the 
iBureau  was  so  patent  and  the  incongruity  of  his  relations  so  glaring  that  he  appears 
iio  have  been  the  object  of  general  suspicion  and  his  partnership  the  inspiration  of 
3,  long  scandal  in  which  the  Bureau  and  its  good  name  were  seriously  involved. 
That  scandal  appears  to  have  been  but  slightly  mitigated  by  his  professed  dissblu- 
tion  of  partnership  with  Fauth  &,  Co.     His  restoration  would  be  detrimental  to  the 


TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY.      201 

TYtorale  of  the  Coast  Survey,  the  dissolution  of  his  partnership  with  which  should 
be  made  permanent,  especially  so  in  view  of  the  practical  continuance  of  his  objec- 
tionable partnership  relations  with  Fauth  &  Co. 

No  evidence  was  brought  to  our  attention  indicating  that  Mr.  W.  B.  Morgan,  the 
late  disbursing  agent  of  tlie  Bureau,  had  in  any  wise  appropriated  to  his  own  use 
any  of  the  funds  coming  to  his  hands.  But  he  appears  to  have  been  entirely  passive 
in  the  matter  of  objecting  to,  or  calling  the  attention  of,  the  Superintendent  to 
^'unusual  items"  or  ''unnecessary  charges. '^ 

He  was  fully  cognizant  of  the  signing  of  a  spurious  voucher  by  Shaw  to  accom- 
modate Boutelle,  and  so  testified.  He  also,  at  Boutelle's  request,  deviated  from  the 
usual  custom  of  making  the  check  payable  ''to  order"  and  caused  it  to  be  made  pay- 
able to  Shaw  "or  bearer,"  as  if  to  aid  in  the  foolishly  irregular  x)roce88  by  which 
payment  was  obtained  of  an  illegal  account,  by  a  method  specifi^cally  forbidden  by 
section  .5496,  Revised  Statutes.  Besides  some  other  evidence,  the  testimony  of  Mr. 
Morgan's  office  accountants  afforded  quite  convineinf?  proof  to  us  that  he  has 
become  addicted  to  the  habitual,  and  occasionally  excessive,  use  of  intoxicants,  and 
has  been  from  once  to  four  times  a  week,  during  the  last  year  and  a  half,  absent 
from  the  office,  so  that  mail  and  matters  for  his  signature  had  to  be  sent  to  him  at 
his  house  or  elsewhere.  He  appears,  alsoj  to  have  been  cognizant  of  the  fraudulent 
character  of  J.  S.  Bradford's  transactions,  and  to  have  done  nothing  to  prevent  or 
make  them  public. 

In  the  liglit  of  those  facts,  we  do  not  feel  warranted  in  recommending  his  restora- 
tion to  his  former  duties. 

The  somewhat  dilatory  confession  of  Mr.  H.  G.  Ogden,  after  its  proof  by  another, 
that  E.  A.  Reubsam — an  inexperienced  minor,  who  appeared  on  the  rolls  of  the 
Bureau  as  a  largely  paid  contract  engraver — was  selected  to  make  subcontracts 
with  other  engravers  in  the  office,  because  vouchers  for  contract  w^ork  would  look 
better  in  the  name  of  an  outsider  than  in  the  names  of  employees,  and  his  equally 
dilatory  confession — after  proof  by  others — of  the  frequent  gratuitous  printing  of 
visiting  cards  for  the  friends  and  acquaintances  of  himself  and  others  in  the  office 
hardly  indicate  the  possession  of  that  keen  sense  of  propriety  which  would  secure 
to  him  the  respect  and  confidence  of  the  employes  in  the  extensive  printing  and 
engraving  division  of  which  he  is  in  charge — sentiments  essential  to  proper  disci- 
pline and  honest  work. 

Conclusive  evidence,  notwithstanding  his  denial,  of  the  almost  invariable  daily 
intoxication  of  W.  T.  Bright,  clerk  in  charge  of  the  drawing  division,  and  equally 
conclusive  evidence  that  he  has  demanded,  from  employes  in  his  division,  a  share  of 
the  work  done  for  "outside  information,"  and  has  received  a  share  ranging  from  10 
to  20  per  centum,  either  from  the  employes  or  by  adding  the  amount  to  their  bills 
rendered  to  "outside"  employers,  suggest  the  propriety  of  au  early  change,  in  the 
interest  alike  of  morals  and  discipline,  in  that  division. 

The  evidence  indicates  that  R.  Zumbrock,  late  in  charge  of  the  electrotyping 
room,  was  unconscious  of  wrong  or  irregularity  while  engaged  in  extra  work,  here- 
inbefore referred  to,  for  tlie  Navy  Department  and  Engineers'  Office,  U.  S.  Army;  it 
was  done  with  the  sanction  and  at  the  request  of  his  superiors,  and  after  estimates 
prepared  at  their  request,  and  with  plant  increased  for  the  purpose  by  their  order. 
When  he  was  advised  of  its  illegality,  he  was,  at  the  same  time,  informed  by  the  then 
assistant  in  charge  that  the  matter  had  been  properly  arranged  and  required  no 
further  attention.  l!^fcifei*"**i 

Another  feature  of  the  present  organization  and  condition,  which  seem^  o^en  to 
criticism,  relates  to  the  compensation  of  the  office  force,  which  would  appear  to 
require  redistribution,  and,  in  some  respects,  a  better  defined  limitation.  The 
Superintendent's  salary  of  $6,000  is  liable  to  an  indefinite  increase  by  special  ap- 
propriation like  that  of  $1,200  for  his  traveling  expenses,  as  well  as  by  a  not  over 
scrupulous  exercise  of  his  discretion  in  personal  inspections  of  "  the  operations  of 
parties  and  persons  employed  in  the  Survey,"  prescribed  by  regulation  3.  The  pres- 
ent compensation  of  the  assistant  in  charge  of  the  office  and  topography  is  $4,000 
and  $2.50  per  diem,  subsistence,  for  every  day  in  the  year.  We  believe  that  the 
salary  of  no  assistant  needs  to  exceed  $3,000  per  annum  with  the  abolishment  of 
subsistence,  except  for  parties  actually  in  the  field.  The  salaries  appear  to  be 
temporarily  guarded  against  any  reduction,  by  the  naming  of  specific  amounts  in 
the  last  appropriation. 

Part  of  the  money  now  liberally  dispensed  in  office — subsistence — might  be  justly 
employed  to  advance  the  compensation,  to  a  just  and  decent  rate,  of  underpaid  office 
workers,  like  computers,  who  receive  from  $1,100  to  $1,400  per  annum,  and  clerks 
who  receive  $60  per  mouth. 

There  is  some  evidence  that  assistants  in   the  field  have  practiced  a  species  of  ' 
extortion  by  collecting  the  entire  subsistence  allowance  of  their  subordinates,  with- 
out allowing  the  difference  between  such  subsistence  and  the  actual  expense,  and 
then  dividing  it  pro  rata  among  the  party  to  lighten  the  mess  bills,  the  effect  of  which 


202       TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

is  make  the  mess  bill  of  tlie  highest-paid  o    c  r  lighter  than  that  of  his  most  poorly 
paid  subordinate. 

The  regulations  prohibit  the  allowance  of  traveling  except  on  business  of  the 
Survey.  There  seems  to  be,  very  rarely,  any  difficulty  in  providing  business  for  a 
favored  employe  who  desires  to  travel.  When  there*^  is  such  difficulty  it  is  con- 
veniently avoidable  under  that  rule,  section  66,  which  makes  eifective'a  'S^oucher 
indorsed  'approved'  by  the  Superintendent."  If  the  voucher  or  transportation 
account  were  required,  in  every  instance,  to  show  fully  the  practi(!al  necessitj'  and 
purpose  of  the  trip  it  might  tend  to  discourage  the  making  of  excursions  not  fairly 
justified  by  the  exigencies  of  the  service. 

It  appears  from  the  records  of  the  Bureau  that  63  parties,  at  present  engaged  in 
field  work,  are  distributed  as  follows:  Topography,  19:  hydrography,  16;  triangu- 
lation,  20;  astronomical,  4;  magnetic,  2;  reconnaissance,' 1;  gravity,  1;  total,  63. 
Of  the  assistants,  subassistants,  :md  aids  in  the  field,  and  not  attached  to  the  office, 
an  estimate,  made  after  a  laborious  analysis  of  the  general  record  of  each,  gives 
them  the  following  classification:  Very  able  and  efficient,  12;  efficient  and  relialde, 
32;  able,  but  not  very  efficient,  6;  either  inefficient  or  not  well  informed,  2;  useful- 
ness impaired  by  age  or  infirmity,  but  still  capable  of  efficient  work,  2;  not  capable 
of  efficient  work  by  reason  of  age  or  infirmity,  4;  total,  58. 

We  transmit  herewith  a  tabulated  list  of  the  assistants,  subassistants,  and  aids, 
with  their  assignments.  Also  the  deposition  of  witnesses  examined  by  us  and  such 
other  items  or  copies  of  evidence  as  seem  necessary  or  proper  in  su]>port  of  th<'  state- 
ments or  suggestions  of  our  report. 

Respectfully  submitted, 

F.  M.  Thorn, 
1.  R.  Garrison, 
A.  T.  Huntington, 

Covimittee, 

Mr.  DoLLiVER.  Will  you  permit  me  to  ask,  Mr.  Eiiloe,  whether  there 
is  any  friction,  personally  or  professionally,  between  the  managers  of 
these  bureaus,  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  and  the  Geological  Sur- 
vey? 

Mr.  Enloe.  None  that  I  have  been  able  to  discover.  One  thing  I 
have  heard  stated.  I  think  it  was  a  gentleman  connected  with  the 
Geological  Survey  who  came  to  me  the  other  day  and  stated  he  wanted 
to  know  if  Prof.  Mendenhall  had  been  reflecting  upon  the  ability  of  the 
men  employed  in  that  Bureau — that  is,  the  Geological  Survey.  I  stated 
that  I  did  not  so  understand  his  remarks  before  the  committee,  except 
to  this  extent,  that  I  thought  he  stated  that  the  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey  could  do  the  work  in  a  little  higher  style  of  the  art  than  could 
be  done  by  the  Geological  Survey.  This  gentleman  said  he  would  like 
to  have  an  opportunity  if  the  committee  had  any  such  impression  to 
come  before  it  to  show  the  character  of  the  work  tbey  do. 

Mr.  Talbott.  As  far  as  I  understood,  he  did  not  reflect  upon  any- 
body's ability. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Did  I  say  he  reflected  upon  their  ability? 

Mr.  Talbott.  I  did  not  understand  him  to  call  anybody's  ability  in 
question. 

Mr.  Enloe.  His  statement  here  will  show  what  he  did  say  about  it, 
and  I  understood  him  to  say,  and  I  think  the  committee  understood 
him  to  say,  and  I  think  the  record  will  bear  me  out  in  this  statement, 
that  the  Geological  Survey  was  not  prepared  to  do  work  in  the  style 
and  with  the  accuracy  it  is  being  done  in  the  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey. 

Mr.  DoLLiVER.  I  have  received  from  various  scientific  societies  and 
various  colleges  throughout  the  country  very  high  testimonials  about 
the  Geodetic  Survey  business  and  the  way  it  is  maintained.  I  do  not 
know  whether  they  know  anything  about  it  or  not. 

Mr.  Enloe.  1  suppose  you  have  received  them,  as  a  great  many 
others  have,  largely  through  the  instrumentality  of  Prof.  Menden- 
hall, who  has  been  very  industriously  working  to  prevent  this  bill  from 


TRANSFER    OF    COAST    AND    CJEOUETIC    SURVEY.  203 

passing.  He  admitted  before  the  coiumittee  liere  that  he  liad  addressed 
coninmnicatious  iu  regard  to  this  bill  to  presidents  of  colleges  and  other 
gentlemen  of  distinction  tliroughont  the  country  to  get  up  this  protest 
against  the  proposed  transfer. 

Mr.  Talbott.  He  did  not  say  that  he  sent  communications  for  this 
purpose,  but  he  said  he  had  sent  copies  of  tlie  bill  and  asked  their 
views  on  the  subject  without  intimating  to  them  what  sort  of  answer 
he  wanted. 

Mr.  Enloe.  He  intimated  very  clearly  w^hat  sort  of  an  answer  he 
wanted,  when  it  was  published  throughout  the  press  of  the  country 
that  he  was  opposed  to  it,  and  that  he  proposed  to  stay  here  and  fight 
it,  and  refused  a  position  tendered  him  in  order  that  he  might  stay  here 
and  light  his  enemies. 

Mr.  Money.  I  think  he  stated  he  sent  these  men  a  copy  of  the  bill 
and  asked  for  their  opinion. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Say  that  is  true;  admit  that  is  what  he  said,  and  what 
I  state  is  true,  that  it  was  at  the  instance  and  the  solicitation  of  Prof. 
Mendenhall  that  these  letters  were  written  here.  Grant  that.  Prof. 
Mendenhall's  position  was  well  known  in  the  country,  because  he  had 
spread  broadcast  throughout  the  country,  through  the  press,  that  he 
was  opposed  to  this  transfer,  that  it  was  an  effort  to  break  uj)  this 
scientific  work,  that  his  enemies  were  trying  to  do  it  because  they  were 
hostile  to  him,  that  he  had  been  tendered  a  position  as  the  head  of  an 
institution  of  learning  and  he  would  not  accept  it,  and  he  was  going  to 
remain  here  and  fight  the  battle  out  to  the  end. 

Mr.  Money.  I  have  no  doubt  that  he  received  none  but  favorable 
responses,  but  I  am  telling  you  what  he  said. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Well,  I  state  the  facts. 

Mr.  DoLLiVER.  Well,  I  did  not  introduce  that  for  the  purpose  of  sug- 
gesting ;  the  writing  of  these  letters  amounted  to  an  argument  on  the 
subject. 

Mr.  Enloe.  But  letters  were  produced  in  large  numbers  and  placed 
in  the  record  by  Prof.  Mendenhall  when  you  were  not  present,  and 
they  were  in  the  nature  of  an  argument  against  the  passage  of  this  bill 
and  were  prepared  for  that  purpose. 

A  number  of  newspaper  extracts  were  read  also.  There  is  no  doubt 
about  the  fact  that  it  was  an  easy  matter  for  an  institution  like  the 
Coast  Survey  to  build  up  a  support  throughout  the  country  from  peo- 
ple who  do  not  really  know  what  is  being  done  by  the  Coast  and  Geo- 
detic Survey.  They  have  a  general  idea  that  it  is  doing  valuable  work 
for  the  Government,  and  that  is  true;  it  is  doing  some  valuable  work 
for  the  Government,  and  we  do  not  propose  to  discontinue  that  work, 
but  we  propose  to  do  it  in  a  different  way. 

Mr.  Tyler.  Do  you  i)ropose  to  limit  it  in  any  way  ? 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  would  place  some  limitations  upon  it.  I  am  not  pro- 
posing to  limit  it,  because  I  have  no  power  to  put  a  limit  on  it.  This 
bill  proposes  a  change  in  the  methods  of  administration,  to  give  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  work  to  the  Secretary  of  the  lIsTavy  so  far  as  the 
coast  is  concerned,  and  give  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  the  juris- 
diction of  the  work  in  the  interior,  through  the  Geological  Survey* 
Now,  as  to  how  the  work  shall  be  prosecuted  in  the  future,  whether  on 
the  scale  mapped  out  by  this  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  or  on  some 
reduced  scale,  depends  upon  those  secretaries'  recommendation  to 
Congress,  and  it  depends  upon  the  judgment  of  Congress  in  making 
the  aj^propriations. 

Mr.  DoLLiVER.  You  say  that  the  present  scope  of  the  enterprise 
seems  to  have  no  end  ? 


204  TRANSFER    OF    COAST    AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Prof.  Woodward  stated  in  the  beginuing  of  his  argu- 
ment that  it  would  indefinitely  continue. 

Mr.  Talbott.  Prof.  Mendenhall  says  you  can  never  stop  this  char- 
acter of  work. 

Mr.  Money.  Here  is  what  Prof.  Woodward  says,  that  as  long  as  the 
tides,  currents,  and  winds  were  shifting  there  would  be  a  continuation 
of  the  work  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey. 

Mr.  Enloe.  I^Tobody  disputes  that  proposition,  and  that  has  never 
been  disputed. 

Mr.  DoLLiVER.  I  understood  you  to  say  the  general  scope  of  the 
work  was  without  an  end? 

Mr.  Enloe.  The  general  scope  of  work  of  the  Geodetic  Survey  is  as 
broad  as  the  territory  of  the  United  States,  including  Alaska,  and  there 
is  no  limitation  to  it,  either  in  the  amount  of  work  that  may  be  done  or 
the  extent  to  which  it  may  be  carried.  They  first  go  and  make  a 
primary  triangulation  of  the  country,  and  then  they  go  and  make  a 
second  triangulation  of  the  country,  and  then  a  tertiary  triangulation, 
and  i  suppose  they  might  go  and  refine  it  and  make  a  map  of  the  entire 
surface  of  the  United  States,  that  would  show  every  stream,  that  would 
show  every  hill,  and  every  valley,  and  every  mountain,  and  every  tree, 
and  everything  on  the  face  of  nature.  It  may  extend  to  that  ulti- 
mately. 

Mr.  Talbott.  What  objection  would  there  be  to  that? 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  will  tell  you  my  objection  to  it  very  clearly.  I  believe 
that  would  be  an  unwise  expenditure  of  public  money,  and  I  believe, 
furthermore,  that  it  would  be  an  unwarranted  expenditure  of  public 
money. 

Mr.  DoLLiVER.  I  quite  agree  with  you  in  that,  but  the  substantial 
features  of  it  present  a  different  problem,  of  course. 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  am  not  objecting  to  the  substantial  features,  but  I  am 
objecting  to  the  scope  of  it  as  planned  by  those  men  who  have  appeared 
before  the  committee  and  propose  to  continue  the  appropriations  for 
this  service  until  the  end  of  time  and  spend  enough  to  keep  employed 
all  the  unemployed  scientists  who  want  jobs  at  the  expense  of  the 
Government.  Perhaps  not  all  of  them,  but  a  great  many  of  them.  I 
think  really  that  a  part  of  the  hostility  to  this  transfer  is  because  it  is 
believed  if  we  take  it  out  from  under  the  present  control  and  put  it 
under  the  two  Secretaries,  men  will  not  be  employed  there  unless  the 
Government  actually  needs  their  services,  and  they  will  not  be  per- 
mitted to  stay  unless  they  render  a  fair  equivalent  for  their  pay. 

Mr.  Money.  Why  should  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  retain  a  man 
who  is  useless  any  more  than  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior? 

Mr.  Enloe.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  does  not  know  any  more 
about  what  is  going  on  there  than  you. 

Mr.  Money.  Would  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  know  any  more  if 
it  was  under  the  Geological  Survey  ? 

Mr.  Enloe.  If  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  appoints  a  man  under 
him  he  is  responsible  to  him  and  he  ought  to  know,  but  this  gentleman 
is  appointed  by  the  President  and  he  is  not  responsible  to  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury,  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  can  not  remove 
him. 

Mr.  Money.  But  is  not  the  Chief  of  the  Geological  Survey  appointed 
by  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior? 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  do  not  know  whether  he  is  or  not. 

Mr.  Money.  I  think  he  is  appointed  by  the  President. 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  believe  he  is  appointed  by  the  President. 

Mr.  Money.  Then  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  has  no  more  to  do 


TRANSFER    OF    COAST    AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY.  205 

with  the  Superintendent  of  the  Geodetic  Survey  in  tliat  case  than  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  would  have  to  do  with  the  Superintendent  of 
the  Coast  Survey? 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  know,  but  he  does.  I  was  down  there  and  talked  with 
the  Director  of  the  Geological  Survey  and  he  told  me  that  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Interior  proposed  to  pass  upon  every  single  appointment 
or  promotion  and  everything  of  that  character  that  was  done  in  that 
office,  and  to  see  that  it  was  administered 

Mr.  Money.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  has  the  same  power! 

Mr.  Enloe.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  can  not  even  control 
the  Superintendent  to  the  extent  of  having  him  restore  practices  there 
which,  ever  since  the  foundation,  there 

Mr.  DOLLIVER.  Then  that  is  the  fault  of  the  Department  then? 

Mr.  Enloe.  There  is  the  Superintendent  having  the  charts,  Coast 
Survey  charts,  printed,  omitting  the  names  of  the  officers  who  did  the 
work. 

Mr.  Talbott.  If  the 

Mr.  Enloe.  He  was  ordered  or  requested  to  put  the  names  back  on 
the  charts  and  I  asked  him  the  question  whether  he  obeyed  the  order, 
and  he  did  not  say;  he  stated  it  was  not  an  order  but  a  request.  This 
committee  did  not  find  out  and  you  do  not  know  now  whether  or  not 
he  paid  aiiy  attention  to  the  requirement  of  the  Secretary.  Prof. 
Mendenhall  explained  whj^  he  took  them  off;  explained  how  it  was  done. 
I  have  not  time  to  go  into  it,  but  I  can  give  a  g-ood  deal  of  history  in 
regard  to  that,  but  nobody's  name  was  to  appear  upon  that  chart  but 
the  Superintendent's  name.  There  was  complaint  made  about  his  not 
giving  credit  to  the  naval  officers.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
called  the  attention  of  the  Superintendent  to  the  omission  and  requested 
that  the  names  be  restored  to  the  maps  as  heretofore,  but  whether 
that  request  has  been  complied  with  or  not  I  do  not  know,  and  this  com- 
mittee does  not  know,  from  the  statement  made  by  Prof.  Mendenhall 
heie. 

Mr.  Money.  I  was  very  well  satisfied  from  the  explanation  why  the 
names  ought  not  to  be  on  the  chart. 

Mr.  DoLLiVER.  It  would  appear  that  the  utility  depends  largely  upon 
the  superiority  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  over  the  other  secretaries; 
I  mean  in  regard  to  executive  ability. 

Mr.  Enloe.  No;  you  are  mistaken  about  that,  because  the  Secretary 
of  the  Kavy  has  complete  jurisdiction  of  the  Hydrographic  Office  of 
the  Navy  Department,  and  unquestionably,  so  far  as  a  valuable  part  of 
the  Survey  is  concerned,  the  Coast  Survey  will  be  under  a  better  admin- 
istration than  it  is  at  present  organized  under  the  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey.  As  to  the  geological  part  of  it,  the  same  conditions  may  exist, 
and  that  might  interfere  with  the  efficiency  of  the  administration  in 
the  Department  of  the  Interior. 

I  have  no  personal  feeling  about  this  matter,  and  I  am  pursuing  it 
with  no  personal  object  in  view.  In  answer  to  a  number  newspaper 
publications  bearing  upon  the  propriety  of  this  change  which  was 
quoted  by  Prof.  Mendenhall  and  incorporated  in  his  extended  remarks, 
I  want  to  quote  an  expression  from  the  Marine  Journal  published  in 
New  York,  and  I  will  just  quote  a  brief  expression  from  it: 

This  work  is  all  of  the  highest  importance,  and  that  it  be  performed  by  the  most 
skilled  men  is  essential.  No  mere  question  of  dollars  should  stand  in  the  way. 
But  when  it  is  shown  that  the  work  is  done  by  the  naval  hydrographers,  whether 
they  receive  credit  for  it  or  not,  and  that  it  would  be  an  actual  saving  to  transfer 
the  service  bodily  to  the  Navy  Department,  the  transfer  should  be  made  without 
delay. 


206      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

Now,  I  have  attempted  to  show  here  reasons  for  the  transfer.  Prof. 
Mendenhall  made  an  extended  argument  before  this  committee  in  hear- 
ings on  seven  different  days,  and  duringthat  time  Prof.  Mendenhall  never 
advanced  a  single  reason  that  I  thought  ought  to  liave  been  conclusive 
to  the  minds  of  the  committee  why  the  transfer  should  not  be  made. 
The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  thinks  he  can  not  manage  it  under  him 
as  it  should  be  managed,  and  he  advises  its  transfer  to  the  Navy 
Department,  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  who  has  been  chairman  of 
the  Committee  on  Naval  Affairs  in  the  House,  and  who  is  perfectly 
familiar  with  these  matters,  believes  that  it  would  be  an  advantage  to 
navigation  and  to  naval  interests  to  have  transferred  to  the  Navy 
Department  that  part  of  it  relating  to  the  Coast  Survey  proper. 

Secretary  Chandler,  who  was  formerly  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  now  a 
Senator  of  the  United  States,  also  advocated  it.  The  naval  of&cers 
generally,  as  I  understand  it,  favor  it,  and  the  only  question  raised  was 
as  to  tlie  competency  of  men  in  the  Geological  Survey  to  do  this  work 
and  the  competency  of  the  naval  ofticers  to  do  Coast  Survey  work. 
This,  I  think,  has  been  sufficiently  answered.  I  think  it  is  sufficiently 
answered  in  the  fact  that  everywhere  else,  except  on  the  coast  of  the 
United  States,  the  naval  officers  have  this  work  to  do,  and  they  do  it 
in  a  way  that  seems  to  be  satisfactory  and  seems  to  be  working  well. 
1  notice,  with  all  the  knowledge  that  has  been  claimed  as  belonging 
peculiarly  to  the  officers  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  they  can 
not  locate  all  obstructions  to  navigation.  The  chairman  of  the  com- 
mittee suggested  to  me  the  other  day  that  it  was  the  time  to  find  out 
why  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  did  not  locate  the  rock  on  which 
the  Columbia  ran  in  the  Delaware  Eiver. 

Mr.  DoLLiVER.  That  was  a  shoal,  well  understood,  I  believe. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Certainly  it  was  a  shoal,  but  this  was  a  place  where 
there  was  nothing  to  indicate  that  it  was  a  shoal  dangerous  to  naviga- 
tion.    It  should  have  been  marked. 

Mr.  Money.  Judging  from  the  letter  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  it 
was  a  matter  of  universal  knowledge. 

Mr.  Enloe.  It  was  a  matter  of  universal  knowledge  that  it  was  a 
shoal,  but  there  was  no  knowledge  of  the  obstruction  on  this  particular 
point  on  the  shoal,  and  there  was  nothing  to  indicate  that  the  vessel 
could  not  pass  over  it. 

Mr.  Money.  The  Secretary  reprimanded  the  officers  for  running 
over  it. 

Mr.  Tyler.  And  they  took  the  risk 

Mr.  Enloe.  They  took  the  risk  of  running  over  the  shoal  that  they 
were  in  the  habit  of  passing  over.  The  censure  was  for  not  reducing 
speed.  It  was  not  until  after  the  attempted  passage  of  the  ship  that 
they  found  that  rock.  I  will  tell  you  all  the  talk  about  the  work  being 
done  by  these  civilians  over  there  in  the  Coast  Survey  in  locating 
obstructions  is  to  be  discontinued.  Obstructions  are  often  first  found 
by  vessels  coming  in  contact  with  them,  and  then  these  gentlemen  go 
out  and  locate  and  mark  them.  A  great  many  obstructions  are  first 
found  in  this  way. 

Mr.  Money.  The  Assistant  Secretary  told  me  that  log  came  down 
in  the  late  freshet. 

Mr.  Enloe.  Well,  I  did  not  discover  that  from  the  official  investiga- 
tion, and  the  letter  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  to  the  commanding 
officer  of  the  ship  did  not  indicate  it  was  a  log. 

Mr.  Talbott.  That  seemed  to  indicate  that  it  was  the  bottom  of  the 
river. 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  think  that  Prof.  Mendenhall  has  not  shown  in  his 


TRANSFER    OF    COAST    AND    GEODETIC    SURVEY.  207 

« 
argument  that  the  greater  part  of  the  Coast  Survey  work  is  not  now 
done  by  naval  officers,  and  that  they  are  not  as  capable  of  doing  it  as 
the  civilians  in  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Surv^ey. 

Mr.  Tyler.  Just  one  question.  Is  it  the  intention  of  this  bill  that 
the  present  scope  of  the  work  should  be  continued  'I 

Mr.  Enloe.  This  bill  does  not  place  any  limitation  upon  the  work  at  all. 

Mr.  Tyler.  You  say  the  present  scope  of  work  could  be  continued 
under  this  bill? 

Mr.  Enloe.  It  could  be,  but  I  do  not  know  whether  it  would  be  or  not. 

Mr.  Tyler.  That  depends  upon 

Mr.  Enloe.  That  is  a  matter  of  administration,  and  I  could  not  tell 
you  in  regard  to  that.  It  would  depend  upon  the  judgment  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy,  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  and  the  President 
of  the  United  States  a(s  to  the  extent  to  which  this  work  in  the  interior 
should  be  carried,  and  ultimately  it  would  depend  upon  the  judgment 
of  Congress  whether  it  w^as  wise  to  appropriate  the  money. 

Mr.  Tyler.  It  does  now  depend  ui)on  the  judgment  of  Congress? 

Mr.  Enloe.  Entirely. 

Mr.  Tyler.  If  the  present  scope  was  continued  after  the  transfer 
was  made,  can  you  state  to  the  committee  in  what  respect  would  there 
be  a  cheapening  of  the  work! 

Mr.  Enloe.  i  made  the  statement  just  a  few  minutes  ago  which  I 
thought  answered  that  in  one  particular.  I  just  stated  in  answer  to 
Mr.  Dolliver  awhile  ago  that  the  abolition  of  this  Bureau  would  be  a 
considerable  saving  in  the  administration,  because  the  work  would 
go  to  other  bureaus  already  organized  in  other  Departments,  and 
already  prepared  to  go  on  with  the  work,  so  it  would  save  the  expense 
of  the  organization  of  this  Bureau.  That  is  one  thing.  As  to  the 
saving  in  other  respects  I  stated  that  I  believed  that  it  would  result  in 
a  saving  of  expenditures,  either  in  the  amount  of  the  appropriation, 
or  it  would  result  in  an  increased  amount  of  work  done  for  the  money 
appropriated,  and  that  would  be  brought  about,  I  think,  by  strict  dis- 
cipline and  stricter  supervision  of  the  exx)enditure  of  money  and  work 
performed.  That  was  my  argument  on  that.  If  my  judgment  were 
followed  in  the  matter,  I  am  sure  that  unless  I  thought  there  was  more 
necessity  for  military  maps  in  this  country  than  I  now  think,  I  would 
not  follow  the  policy  of  continuing  this  detailed  survey,  extending  it 
from  the  coast  back  into  the  country,  nor  would  I  favor  an  extension 
of  the  lines  from  the  transcontinental  arc  on  State  lines  to  give  points 
to  the  States.  I  do  not  believe  it  is  a  necessity,  and  I  do  not  think  it 
is  wise  to  use  the  public  money  in  that  way.  It  would  be  time  enough 
to  deal  with  that  if  we  shall  ever  have  need  of  it  for  military  oper- 
ations. 

Mr.  Dolliver.  It  would  be  too  late  then  if  we  should  get  into  a  war? 

Mr.  Enloe.  We  are  not  going  to  get  into  any  war  at  the  present 
time,  unless  it  is  with  our  own  people.  We  are  not  in  much  danger  at 
this  time  of  getting  into  a  foreign  war  unless  we  do  that  in  order  to 
build  a  larger  Navy,  to  make  more  ships,  to  build  larger  guns  and  fur- 
nish employment  to  the  Committee  on  Naval  Afiairs. 

Now,  Mr.  Chairman,  Prof.  Mendenhall  has  not  shown  any  use  for  the 
geodetic  work  except  to  furnish  points  for  State  surveys,  although  he 
admits  that  is  its  only  use.  He  gives  no  definite  answer  to  the  number 
of  States  which  have  asked  for  them,  notwithstanding  the  fact  he  was 
questioned  particularly  on  that  point. 

The  evidence  which  has  been  produced  before  this  committee  as  to 
the  utility  of  this  work,  its  cost,  its  duplication,  as  to  who  does  the 
hydrographic  work  and  its  duration,  and  the  maladministration  of  the 


208      TRANSFER  OF  COAST  AND  GEODETIC  SURVEY. 

affairs  of  the  office  has  been  furnished  by  this  side  of  the  question. 

Such  witnesses  as  Prof.  Hilgard,  Commander  Bartlett,  Prof.  — , 

Secretary  Chandler,  Mr.  Colonna,  now  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey,  and  Mr.  Ogden,  now  of  the  Coast  and  (leodetic  Survey,  liave 
testified  upon  this  point,  and  the  evidence  is  in  this  record,  placed  there 
by  Mr.  Glasscock  in  his  opening  argument  before  the  committee.  Prof. 
Mendenhall  has  not  attempted  to  impeach  that  testimony  nor  has  he 
offered  any  of  his  own  to  sustain  any  assertions  unfriendly  to  this  trans- 
fer, except  clippings  from  newspapers,  to  which  I  referred  a  moment  ago, 
and  some  personal  letters  written,  as  I  stated,  at  his  instance,  if  not  at 
his  solication. 

Mr.  Tyler.  I  have  memorials  from  several  colleges  protesting 
against  this  transfer. 

Mr.  Enloe.  I  had  one  myself.  I  received  one  from  the  Cumberland 
University  of  Tennessee,  an  institution  which  I  attended.  I  know  the 
professors  there  well,  and  it  appears  that  they  believe  I  am  a  regular 
iconoclast.  1  presume  they  tliink  I  am  attempting  to  break  down  and 
destroy  everything  scientific.  They  appear  to  be  of  the  impression 
that  this  whole  work  is  to  be  destroyed.  I  judge  from  the  communica- 
tion that  that  was  the  impression  on  their  minds. 

Mr.  DoLLiVER.  That  is,  that  you  were  making  war  on  science  in 
general  ? 

Mr.  Enloe.  Yes;  I  did  not  suppose  that  the  fact  that  one  of  the  pro- 
fessors there  has  been  in  the  employ  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey 
had  anything  to  do  with  it.  But  that  fact  occurred  to  my  mind  when 
I  received  the  communication,  as  it  naturally  would. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  as  I  have  stated  to  you,  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  and  all  the  authorities  that  I  regard  as  most  competent 
to  speak  on  this  question  are  in  favor  of  this  transfer,  and  I  want  to 
call  the  committee's  attention  just  in  a  single  sentence  to  a  curious 
anomaly  which  is  here  i)resented,  and  I  believe  I  called  attention  to 
it  in  my  opening  remarks,  and  that  is,  that  this  Superintendent,  hold- 
ing an  office  under  this  administration,  owing  his  position  to  the  Presi- 
dent, did  for  sometime  practically  suspend  the  practical  workings  of 
the  Bureau  in  which  he  was  engaged,  to  load  this  committee  with 
information  and  arguments  protesting  against  the  very  policy  which 
the  administration  was  attempting  to  carry  out.  There  were  the  two 
Secretaries  of  the  Navy  asking  for  it,  and  there  was  the  subordinate 
voluntarily  coming  here  for  seven  days  talking  against  the  policy  of 
the  administration  under  which  he  holds  his  office. 

Mr.  DoLLiYER.  Would  it  indicate  that  the  usual  law  of  subordina- 
ion  does  not  apply  to  the  domain  of  science  ^. 

Mr.  Enloe.  That  is  what  I  have  said  all  the  time  about  this  Coast 
and  Geodetic  Survey,  that  if  there  ever  was  a  bureau  organized  under 
the  Government  that  was  indejjendent  of  and  superior  to  everything 
in  the  nature  of  a  governing  i)ower  it  was  this  Bureau. 

Mr.  Tyler.  But  ought  not  science  to  be  independent  and  not  subor- 
dinate? 

Mr.  Enloe.  Science  is  superior,  and  is  not  subordinate,  but  I  deny 
that  this  Bureau  is,  or  ought  to  be,  the  embodiment  of  science.  I  hope 
the  committee  will  consider  the  matter.  It  is  a  matter  in  which  I  feel 
no  personal  interest  whatever,  except  when  I  attempt  a  thing  I  like  to 
succeed  in  it,  as  I  always  believe  I  am  right  before  I  begin.  I  thank 
the  committee  for  the  jiatience  with  which  they  have  heard  me. 

Thereui)on  the  committee  adjourned. 


i 


